With South Africa’s transition from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) imminent, new channels may fail to gain traction in the country’s oversaturated channel market.

The move to DTT was expected to provide better-quality television (TV) broadcasts, increased interactivity, Internet access on set-top boxes, in some cases, and more channels, with the creation of about 16 standard-definition digital channels for each analogue frequency. This was in addition to potential high-definition channels, bringing hopes of the launch of new locally-focused channels.

With the increased network capacity of DVB-T2, or second-generation digital video broadcast transmission – the digital technology standard adopted by South Africa – the State-owned broadcaster the South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) and private broadcaster e.tv could, over the next few years, launch over 20 channels between them and open up space for new players.

However, with four free-to-air terrestrial-based broadcasting channels, namely SABC 1, 2 and 3, and e.tv, and over 200 channels between South Africa’s two pay TV broadcasters hosted on a digital satellite network, namely On Digital Media’s TopTV and Multichoice, new broadcasters might face headwinds with regard to their ambitions of cementing new channels, said UK-based consultancy Balancing Act CEO Russell Southwood.

Increased access to mobile television platforms, such as YouTube, would also hamper progress.

Speaking at the two-day SatCom Africa conference, in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Tuesday, he said significant investment and a minimum of three years would be required for any new channel to obtain the profit and subscribers needed to ensure its sustainability, and companies wishing to enter the market would need to be innovative to capture an audience that already had much choice.

Further, despite potential new avenues of broadcast advertising opening up, new channels would need a minimum of 250 000 subscribers to attract advertisers in an ever-online world, added Southwood.