Communications Minister Faith Muthambi
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Friday placed an 18-month deadline on the implementation of South Africa’s migration from analogue to digital broadcasting – despite no digital switch-on and analogue switch-off dates having been set yet.
Speaking on the third day of the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association-hosted Digital Broadcasting Now conference, in Randburg, on Friday, she said that the Department of Communications (DoC) and all stakeholders would embark on a recently completed implementation plan for the long-delayed multibillion-rand project.
South Africa, which would miss the International Telecommunications Union-stipulated digital migration deadline of June 17, was now “well on track” with digital migration, with all the necessary policies amended and finalised and progress on the issue of the disputed set-top boxes (STBs) well advanced.
However, it was not clear what impact free-to-air broadcaster e.tv’s decision to take the DoC to court to have some provisions of the recently gazetted Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) policy reviewed would have on the process.
In March, the DoC published the amended policy stipulating that the five-million government-subsidised STBs would contain a control system.
e.tv requested that the provision stating that the subsidised STBs would not have the capability to encrypt broadcast signals be set aside and that the provision wherein the STB control system was nonmandatory be amended.
Meanwhile, the digital terrestrial television regulations developed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa were also ready, Muthambi told conference delegates on Friday.
Further, bilateral agreements with South Africa’s neighbouring countries would also be concluded by June to harmonise spectrum between the countries and limit the interruptions to the analogue transmissions, the protection of which would be lifted in two months.