{"id":34788,"date":"2011-09-27T16:04:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T14:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=34788"},"modified":"2011-09-28T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T07:43:12","slug":"digital-tv-deadlines-at-great-risk-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/34788-digital-tv-deadlines-at-great-risk-doc.html","title":{"rendered":"Digital TV deadlines at great risk: DoC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/span>: All of the critical activities for South Africa\u2019s digital TV launch face medium or high levels of risk of not being completed by their agreed-upon deadlines, the Department of Communications warned the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, the Department of Communications (DoC)<\/a> warned that all of the critical activities in the digital terrestrial television (DTT) launch plan are at risk of not being completed by deadline.<\/p>\n

According to the DoC, the main reasons are \u201cinternal DoC approval delays\u201d and \u201clack of capacity or specialist resources to manage the delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minister of Communications, Radhakrishna \u201cRoy\u201d Padayachie<\/a> set ambitious goals earlier this year (2011) when he announced South Africa\u2019s new DTT standard:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Digital switch-on in April 2012<\/li>\n
  2. Analogue switch-off in December 2013<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Although Padayachie\u2019s approach to SA\u2019s information and communication technology challenges has been commended, industry players and analysts alike believe that these DTT deadlines are unrealistic.<\/p>\n

    The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)<\/a> have set the international deadline for the switch-off of analogue TV transmissions for 17 June 2015.<\/p>\n

    According to the DoC presentation, the critical activities, their deadlines, risks of missing those deadlines, and reasons for the risk, are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Digital terrestrial television launch – key risks<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Activity<\/strong><\/td>\nDeadline<\/strong><\/td>\nRisk – numeric<\/strong><\/td>\nRisk<\/strong><\/td>\nReason<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
    Finalise policy<\/td>\nBegin Sep 2011<\/td>\n5<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • DoC internal approval delays<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Finalise performance period<\/td>\nEnd Sep 2011<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • Dependent on policy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Finalise STB standard (TC74)<\/td>\nEnd Oct 2011<\/td>\n3<\/td>\nMedium<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • Need consensus on STB control<\/li>\n
    • Has certain mandated time lines to consult<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Finalise STB conformance<\/td>\nEnd Dec 2011<\/td>\n3<\/td>\nMedium<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • Capacity to manage process<\/li>\n
    • Specialist skill required to draft ToR<\/li>\n
    • Partially dependent on STB standard agreements<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Finalise marketing and communication plans<\/td>\nBegin Oct 2011<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • Lack of dedicated marketing resource on project<\/li>\n
    • Specialist skill required<\/li>\n
    • Partially dependent on decision on agency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Finalise viewer support plans<\/td>\nEnd Nov 2011<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • Capacity to manage process<\/li>\n
    • Understanding of scale of requirement<\/li>\n
    • Potential lack of sufficient funding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Confirm and\/or secure funding<\/td>\nBegin Nov 2011<\/td>\n5<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • No visibility of funding gap<\/li>\n
    • High potential of missing key MTEF deadlines<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Establish PMO<\/td>\nBegin Oct 2011<\/td>\n4<\/td>\nHigh<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • DoC internal approval delays<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Secure STB orders<\/td>\nEnd Mar 2012<\/td>\n3<\/td>\nMedium<\/td>\n\n
      \n
    • STB manufacturing strategy not finalised<\/li>\n
    • Retailers not convinced of success<\/li>\n
    • Poor perceptions due to previous delays<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Department of Communications recently told Parliament that the deadlines of key activities in SA\u2019s digital migration are at great risk of not being met<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":33584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[237,255,4190,2096,4606,1023,2094,35,233],"class_list":["post-34788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-department-of-communications","tag-digital-broadcasting","tag-digital-migration","tag-digital-terrestrial-television","tag-digital-tv","tag-doc","tag-dtt","tag-headline","tag-roy-padayachie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34790,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34788\/revisions\/34790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}