The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) has ramped up the public awareness programme surrounding the national broadcasting digital migration (BDM) and the impending analogue switch-off (ASO) as the final date for applications for subsidised set-top boxes (STBs) draws closer.

“We have ramped up the public awareness programme to ensure the digital migration message reaches South Africans irrespective of where they are. We therefore adopted a multiprong and multichannel approach to drive the message to our citizens regarding BDM and the final date of applications on September 30,” says Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.

The BDM messages are being broadcast over all the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) public radio stations in their respective languages through at least five slots per radio station a day and three slots for the three SABC television channels a day.

Further, 96 community broadcasters are broadcasting the BDM message three times a day and teams are “on the ground” across all provinces doing community activations to educate people about digital migration, drive registrations and STB installations.

“We appreciate the support of the South African Local Government Authority and the National House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders and their provincial chapters for the collaborative work with both councillors and traditional leaders in coordinating localised community meetings,” she said during a media briefing on Thursday.

The department is also leveraging various social media platforms to further disseminate the message.

This comes as the BDM process delays negatively impact the development of the information and communications technology sector, as well as broadband penetration across the country, particularly in rural and periurban areas.

Ntshavheni, updating on the progress of the BDM, said that there were 61 155 new registered households between April 2022 and July 2022, equating to an average of 15 288 registrations a month – a decline in STB applications and registrations.

“Based on the consolidated number of registrations and installations, including the rolled over numbers from KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape owing to floods, we are now left with approximately 244 000 installations to complete.”

“We will continue to evaluate registrations for the period to September as we move towards determining the final ASO date that we will undertake consultations on.”