The Black Business Council (BBC) and the National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (Namec) on Tuesday appealed to have the proposed inclusion of conditional access control on set-top boxes (STBs) scrapped.

The parties planned to deliver a memorandum to Cabinet’s subcommittee prior to Communication Minister Yunus Carrim’s submission of a facilitation report to Cabinet on November 27.

Government and broadcasters were currently at an impasse regarding the conditional access functions of the STBs, resulting in several delays to the country’s digital migration – a delay that has cost the country jobs and opportunities and resulted in the nation lagging behind other African countries in terms of digital migration.

Cabinet would rightly decide the fate of the much-contested STB conditional control access, the association and council jointly said, criticising the prior and present Ministers’ interference in the matter.

“Politicians are not businesspeople – they understand politics, but [not how to run] a business,” BBC president Ndaba Ntsele said at a digital migration colloquium, held in Sandton, pointing out that, if conditional access became government policy, it would be difficult to fight.

Namec electronic manufacturing sector chairperson Vijay Panday said the addition of conditional access control would increase the total cost of ownership of STBs by up to 43%, with the excess cost being passed on to consumers who were not being subsidised by government.

The government aimed to subsidise STBs for about five-million households that were unable to afford the decoders.

The conditional access technology would be sourced internationally, accruing continuous royalties and hosting expensive support structures, with constant upgrade, maintenance and servicing required.

Panday stated that the STB issues emerged out of “certain people’s” self-interest, which could, besides others, enable pay-television broadcasters to piggyback on government’s subsidised decoders, as well as a lack of technological knowledge.

He stressed that nowhere in the world was conditional access, which was generally used to control subscribers on pay-TV platforms, implemented on a free-to-air broadcasting decoder.

South Africa needed to create black industrialists and sustainable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and digital migration would give this ambition a leg up, but not if conditional access was installed in STBs, said Panday.

Black manufacturers and local chipset vendors would be hampered owing to compliance issues and lengthy and expensive certification processes.

“Conditional access will increase the barrier to entry into this market for many emerging black manufacturers, as they would need to be accredited by a conditional access vendor first [which could take up to two years] before they can manufacture the STBs that have this software,” Namec president Keith Thabo agreed.

The association had welcomed the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s recent pubic opposition to conditional access, saying this was a “significant step” for black electronic manufacturers to “take position” and prepare for the green light to STB manufacturing.

“Cabinet will deal with this [impasse] once and for all,” averred Parliament Portfolio Committee on Communications chairperson Eric Kholwane, noting, however, that government needed to listen to its constituents.

The confusion arose out of previous Ministers’ attempts to “deal with the issue” outside of Cabinet.

Digital migration was a Cabinet initiative and no legislation had been drafted to deal with it, so Cabinet alone had the right to change the rules, he explained.

The issue of the control of STBs was expected to be resolved by December 4.

Meanwhile, Panday said Namec had prepared for, and was awaiting the outcome of Cabinet’s decision to move forward on its manufacturing ambitions.

The group, which planned to buy out Mastercare before month-end, said its newly established Pinetown factory would be able to produce 2.5-million second-generation digital video broadcast transmission (DVB-T2) STBs a year, and, with added support from China-based joint venture partners, the group could deliver output of 2.5-million a month.

The facility could also offer Android-based decoders, DVB mini decoders and Digital 2 antennas.

The decoders, exceeding the SANS 862:2012 standard, would come fully supported with all accessories, such as test and measurement equipment, RCA connectors and high-definition multimedia interface cables and remotes, and would be sold as installation sets to affiliated SMEs at lower prices.

Namec had secured commitments from its partners to ensure sufficient skills transfer and had ensured most of what was spent on STBs stayed on South African shores.

A positive ending to the final negotiations under way for the acquisition of Mastercare would ensure Namec was equipped with a significant after-sales network, servicing STBs and all related products, in addition to the current Mastercare offerings.

The group was also in talks with Massmart to undertake the repairs and after-sales services of products at Game and Dion Wired outlets once the buyout had been completed.