South Africans can look forward to purchasing expensive set top boxes (STBs) in order to receive digital TV signals.<\/p>\n
This is according to Masa Sugano, first secretary of economic and commercial affairs at the embassy of Japan in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
Sugano is involved in the battle between ISDB-T and DVB-T to become the South African digital broadcasting standard. Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting \u2013 Terrestrial (ISDB-T) is a standard for digital television and radio broadcasting developed in Japan.<\/p>\n
DVB-T vs. ISDB-T: The war rages on<\/strong><\/p>\n Digital Video Broadcasting \u2013 Terrestrial (DVB-T) – a digital broadcasting standard developed in Europe – and ISDB-T have been at loggerheads<\/a> in South Africa since early this year.<\/p>\n The battle began in earnest when ex-Director General of the Department of Communications (DoC), Mamodupi Mohlala, announced that South Africa hadn’t selected a standard for digital broadcasting.<\/p>\n Her statement was rubbished by various industry players, including M-Net and e.tv.<\/p>\n Ex-Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, revealed later that South Africa’s chosen standard remains DVB-T<\/a>, but that recent technological advances caused the whole SADC region to “explore the possibility of using a different standard.”<\/p>\n Standards from the DVB family are already used in South Africa for satellite broadcasts and ICASA recently awarded MultiChoice and e.tv spectrum for mobile broadcasting using the DVB-H standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite the standards already in use, as well as the policies already accepted and the regulations already published with DVB-T in mind, South Africa’s DTT standard is being reconsidered and alternatives such as ISDB-T are on the table.<\/p>\n According to Gustavo Rosas from the Brazillian Embassy in Pretoria, the offer of ISDB-T is a partnership between Japan and Brazil.<\/p>\n Standard doesn’t determine STB cost<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the criticisms levelled at ISDB-T is that its set top boxes are more expensive<\/a> than those made to decode DVB-T signals.<\/p>\n A report prepared by Farncombe Technology for the National Association of Broadcasters in South Africa (NAB) listed the high cost of STBs in Brazil<\/a>, which uses a version of ISDB-T, as one of the factors discouraging adoption of DTT.<\/p>\n Many attribute this high cost to a lack of economies scale. The argument is that because DVB-T is much more widely adopted than ISDB-T, STBs are produced in higher volumes which decreases the cost.<\/p>\n Sugano said it’s not the choice of standard that determines the cost of STBs, but industrial policy.<\/p>\n He explained that lack of competition in the STB space in Brazil, both domestically and through imports, is what prevents STBs from being available for cheaper.<\/p>\n