https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Minister promises DTT traction, but STB control issues back to square one

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi

13th November 2014

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

Font size: - +

The Minister now tasked with progressing South Africa’s long-awaited digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration has promised an “intense process of heightened activity”, as moves to “revive” the project get under way.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, who has the responsibility of driving the digital migration process, on Wednesday announced that a digital switch-on date would be set in due course and South Africa should “watch this space”.

This emerged with less than a year until the International Telecommunications Union- (ITU-) stipulated deadline to migrate the nation’s broadcasting services from analogue to digital.

South Africa had until June 2015 to switch to digital before the ITU lifted the protection of the analogue terrestrial television signals, leaving frequencies open to disruption.

However, despite promising an acceleration of the project, many issues remained, including that of conditional access on set-top boxes (STBs) – a decision that was already taken by Cabinet when former Communications Minister Yunus Carrim announced the nonmandatory use of a control system in the STBs not subsidised by government.

Broadcasters not wanting to make use of the control system would be unaffected by the existence of the control system in the STBs or by the use of the system by other broadcasters.

The drawn-out debate over the control systems of the decoders needed for South Africa’s digital migration brought the project to a standstill after broadcasters initiated several court battles against the former Department of Communications (DoC), which has now been split into the Department of Communications and the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services.

The much-delayed awarding of the tender for the manufacture of five-million subsidised STBs for terrestrial television was halted in 2012 after broadcaster e.tv launched a court bid to oppose Sentech’s appointment by the then-DoC to manage conditional access to the STBs.

By December 2012, the South Gauteng High Court had ruled that broadcasters other than Sentech should also be granted conditional access control and ordered stakeholders to participate in Independent Communications Authority of South Africa-led talks into the role of each party in the implementation of the conditional access.

The DoC appealed the ruling but, in February 2013, withdrew its appeal in an effort to fast-track the roll-out of DTT.

However, the impasse continued as broadcasters failed to agree on whether control should be implemented or scrapped.

The latest dispute occurred shortly after Carrim gazetted a digital signal switch-on date of April 1, 2014 – a month before President Jacob Zuma split the former DoC into two departments, leaving the responsibility for the roll-out of DTT in limbo for months.

Muthambi noted that there was now a need for policy clarity and legislation from government, which would be key to resolving the STB stand-off.

“As soon as I began my consultation on this matter, I established that there were very strong contesting positions around this matter,” she said, adding that after “significant consultations” and taking into account the “developments that led to the impasse and stagnation”, she was close to reaching a recommendation to present to Cabinet.

“I have prioritised that this matter is presented before Cabinet prior to year-end. A subsequent announcement around this matter will be made,” Muthambi averred.

Discussions over other “strategic and operational aspects” of the migration, however, had progressed significantly after DoC acting director-general Donald Liphoko was tasked with appointing a project management team to resolve the impasse and establish a working group comprised of industry representatives to assist with the acceleration of the project.

“Matters that are being resolved by this task team with industry experts relate to the finalisation of issues such as network readiness, regulatory aspects, the standards of STBs, the manufacturing and distribution capabilities, the readiness of the broadcasters to deliver digital content and launching of an extensive public awareness campaign to inform South African citizens about DTT,” she concluded.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Showroom

Magni SA
Magni SA

Magni SA is committed to developing the safest Telehandlers available to our customers for underground and surface mining, construction, forestry,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Showroom image
Alcohol Breathalysers

Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.066 0.116s - 137pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now