The South African Department of Communications (DoC) has issued a statement in response to recent media reports that the government had selected the second generation of the Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial standard (DVB-T2) for the country’s digital broadcasting standard.<\/p>\n
Tiyani Rikhotso, spokesperson for the Ministry of communications, issued the statement and it is published verbatim for the sake of accuracy.<\/p>\n
“The Ministry of Communications has noted media reports and speculation regarding government’s decision on South Africa’s preferred Digital Terrestrial Television technology standard.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Communications will soon announce the decision made by cabinet with regard to this issue.<\/p>\n
This follows a review conducted by regional body SADC.<\/p>\n
He is currently finalising consultations with relevant stakeholders on matters related to government’s decision.”<\/p>\n
South Africa’s digital migration was plunged into disarray<\/a> last year when the department announced that it was reconsidering South Africa’s chosen digital terrestrial television (DTT) standard, DVB-T.<\/p>\n Speculation abounded that Japan and Brazil was lobbying government to have a version of the Japanese ISDB-T standard used for South Africa’s national broadcasting standard.<\/p>\n Fierce debates raged about the technical superiority of the standards, but Minister of communications Roy Padayachie<\/a> promised to finalise South Africa’s standard by mid-December 2010, a few weeks after SADC was due to issue its recommendation on DTT standards.<\/p>\n The minister has yet to make such an announcement, but TechCentral reported<\/a> earlier this week that Kuben Govender, adviser to Padayachie, revealed that the decision to go with DVB-T2 had already been ratified by cabinet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rikhotso was unable to answer questions about specifics, but provided some explanation of why Minister Roy Padayachie had delayed in announcing South Africa’s official DTT standard.<\/p>\n According to Rikhotso, Padayachie has been holding “consultations on a wide scale” with various industry players, including operators.<\/p>\n He said that he wasn’t in a position to comment on who those stakeholders are, but explained that the decision will have far-reaching implications and that the minister wanted to ensure that everyone was on-board and that everyone’s concerns were heard.<\/p>\n “The standard is just an aspect of digital migration,” Rikhotso said. “There are so many other issues that are part of this entire process.”<\/p>\n Rikhotso confirmed that the decision has been taken and that the minister will be announcing the decision within the next week.<\/p>\n “As soon as he’s back he’ll make it a priority,” Rikhotso concluded.<\/p>\n