TV’s digital migration boxed down

Just wondering what the difference in cost would be between buying the "set top box" and a TV with the digital tuner built in?
 
Karen Willenberg, the director of regulatory and legal affairs at M-Net, said the primary purpose of conditional-access software was to cut customers off when they did not pay their account.

“The success or otherwise of a free-to-air platform has nothing to do with this kind of functionality,” she said. “Success will be driven by two things: the cost of the box and the content offering.”

Willenberg said the United Kingdom’s Freeview DTT [digital terrestrial television] service, arguably one of the most successful platforms in the world, operated without any conditional access or set-top-box controls
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Finally, someone who gets it. Can't we make her minister of communications?
 
In my view Free to Air, and Conditional Access are mutually exclusive. If you have the one, you cannot have the other.

I agree with ETV that the broadcast channel's company should have control of conditional access for their channel(s). Giving it to Sentech would be a disaster. As far as I am concerned THAT is just a recipe for corruption and money making for ANC cadres (once again).

However, I disagree with ETV that their current channel should be encrypted and market forces will probably force that so long as the SABC channels are properly FTA.

At the moment it doesn't look like there's a snowball's chance in hell of that happening, as the bloke who fully advocated proper FTA at SABC has just been sacked.

As for Dina Pule. Well, she should be fired. For her and her boyfriend, this is just a money-making SCAM.
 
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Rouxenator said:
Why can't they just shut it down already?
DVB-S(2) is enough for everyone.
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Not this again Roux... we know your preference for satellite, but it is not viable for a country to deploy something like this. Give it up.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Not this again Roux... we know your preference for satellite, but it is not viable for a country to deploy something like this. Give it up.
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Uhm, it is already deployed and working pretty well.
Where have you been this past 18 years?
 
Rouxenator said:
Uhm, it is already deployed and working pretty well.
Where have you been this past 18 years?
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did you notice the reference to country?

Yes commercially it is viable, for a free to air broadcast for an entire country (especially one that is as poor as ours) it is not a viable replacement, but then you are so set in your ways I don't really expect you to grasp the concept.
 
ToxicBunny said:
did you notice the reference to country?

Yes commercially it is viable, for a free to air broadcast for an entire country (especially one that is as poor as ours) it is not a viable replacement, but then you are so set in your ways I don't really expect you to grasp the concept.
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By set in my ways you mean that I already debunked your theory because it is cheaper to have a satellite in space than it is to have thousands of repeaters on high sites?

In a big country like South Africa you have a much higher success rate with satellite.
 
Rouxenator said:
By set in my ways you mean that I already debunked your theory because it is cheaper to have a satellite in space than it is to have thousands of repeaters on high sites?

In a big country like South Africa you have a much higher success rate with satellite.
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Its cheaper to have a satellite? Really?

Are you going to try and push that one for real?
 
ToxicBunny said:
Its cheaper to have a satellite? Really?

Are you going to try and push that one for real?
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I don't have to - just open your eyes because its been here for 18 years!

Stop fighting against reality just because you want some new toys. There are many hurdles to overcome with regards to terrestrial broadcasting, the infrastructure, maintenance, end user hardware, digital cliff, the list goes on. All that has already been overcome with the satellite providers we have in SA, since 18 years ago.

Why waste further money on a solution to which there is no question.
 
There is one very simple reason why DVB-S will not be used as the standard in SA and DTT scrapped altogether - CORRUPTION

If you want a more complex answer: The DVB-S replacement to terrestrial broadcasting is an argument that assumes three things:
(1) the market works; (2) the private sector provisioning services is a good thing; (3) mercantalist and protectionist industrial policy always fails in the medium to long term.

In 2000 I didn't imagine I'd ever advocate for satellite, in 2004 the very interesting idea was posited in my head by Prof Jonas in a presentation on the SKA (then a really cool dream) in response to the question about TV for the affected parts of the Northern Cape - we'll put them on DsTV, in 2010 TopTV brought cheap satellite equipment to the market and showed that DVB-S can be rolled out at the same - if not lower - cost per unit as DTT set top boxes, which means that you can plan you migration subsidization routine to move everybody onto DVB-S(2) using the digital dividend of migration. Basically the maths is simple it costs Rx per household to provide customer premises for migration once off if the funds from a spectrum auction exceed the number of households which are required to migrate then whoever is buying the spectrum has paid for the migration, moreover the savings to the broadcaster - single connection to satellite as opposed to an entire network of terrestrial broadcasting points.
But DTT allows the Minister to play games about which standard, allows government to dangle tenders and to promote industrial policy (no importing DVB-S(2) cheap Alcatel boxes like ODM did) and all sorts of other nonsense.

The move to DVB-S will destroy Sentech's niche, will make the SA government dependent on a satellite system outside of its jurisdiction (cause its in space) and control. This is good for South Africa but for dictators. However the waste of Sentech in its current form should be seen as a sunk cost, lets move on and let the market do its magic. Wholesale acceptance of DVB-S for migration away from inefficient analogue broadcasting would be a big part of making ODM viable as a business and possibly getting a third player in the space, it will give a big kick to Multichoice. I have little doubt that but for the DTT bull**** and various oooings and aahings from some communications forum about using DTT for internet access that Telkom Media would have made a lot more sense and IPTV in general would be at a more advanced stage.

So yes DVB-S(2) is the answer but like LLU it is not happening because the government doesn't believe in a free market and in letting the electronic communications industry work without constant interference. Destroy Telkom in the media sphere to protect SABC, destroy Neotel et al on LLU to make up to Telkom, give Neotel some stupid concession which destroys something else etc ...
 
DVB-S is susceptable to rain fade. DVB-T is not.

The isswue of condicional access will never go away, even when set tob boxes are off the market. The Conditional access will need to be integrated in the televsion tuners themselves. Every tv will need a smartcard slot.
 
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