The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) issued its draft digital terrestrial television (DTT) regulations on Friday (13 July 2012), in which it spelled out coverage targets for the SABC\u2019s digital TV signal.<\/p>\n
Should the draft regulations be accepted as they stand, state signal distributor Sentech would have to cover 74% of South Africa\u2019s population within 6 months after DTT services are officially switched on.<\/p>\n
By the time old analogue broadcasts are switched off, 95% of South Africa\u2019s population would need to be covered.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the year Sentech and the Department of Communications (DoC) announced that 60% population coverage had been achieved to date.<\/p>\n
The switch-on date for DTT in South Africa isn\u2019t firm yet, with Minister of Communications Dina Pule only saying that they\u2019re aiming for a Q3 2012 switch-on. The DoC later issued a press statement saying that the target switch-on date was \u201caround September\u201d.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s analogue switch-off date is up in the air after the previous digital broadcasting start date of April 2012 was missed.<\/p>\n
Pule previously confirmed that the former switch-off date of December 2013 would have to be delayed, but didn\u2019t specify a new deadline.<\/p>\n
Draft Digital Terrestrial Television regulations published<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Namibia beats SA to digital<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Deadline schmeadline: Digital TV and the DoC<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sentech\u2019s digital TV groundhog day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n