The South African Post Office has called on qualifying households to apply for a free government-subsidised decoder, known as a set-top box (STB).

The call comes as the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies accelerates the country’s switch from analogue to digital television (TV) transmissions.

Those applying for the STB before November 1 will receive a decoder before the analogue television signal is switched off by latest March 2022, while those registering after that date will only receive a decoder at a later date.

Once the analogue television signal is switched off and only digital television transmissions broadcast, analogue TV sets will only work when connected to a decoder.

Earlier in October, Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni accelerated South Africa’s long-delayed transition from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial TV, under the broadcasting digital migration (BDM) programme, with the ambition of concluding the analogue switch-off across all nine provinces by the end of January.

This followed a mandate by President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his 2021 State of the Nation Address, to conclude the programme by March 2022.

All South African households with an income of R3 500 a month or less and a working television set qualify for a government subsidised STB; however, potential beneficiaries are required to apply, with their South African identity document, proof of address and an affidavit to confirm that the family has a working TV set, at their local Post Office.

The registrants also require a bank statement or affidavit to confirm that the family income is R3 500 a month or less.

For those receiving a South African Social Security Agency, or Sassa, grant, only proof of receipt of the grant is enough.

The Post Office branches have standard affidavits for the applicants’ declarations, negating the need for applicants to visit a police station for an official affidavit prior to registration.

There will also be a separate dedicated queue at the Post Offices for STB applications.

Once an application has been approved, the information is provided to Sentech to appoint a local installer to install your STB.

Households that have already registered for a STB, but have not had the decoder installed yet, are not required to reregister, with the Post Office noting that the installations are done per province and the appointment of local installers is done by Sentech through local municipalities.

On October 6, Ntshavheni said that, since the inception of the BDM programme, 556 954 of the current total of 1.18-million registered beneficiary households, have been migrated.

“The process of registering beneficiary households to be supported started in 2015 and to date 1.18-million qualifying households have been registered out of the estimated 3.75-million qualifying households,” Ntshavheni commented.

Nearly 10.5-million TV-owning households, out of just over 14-million, have self-migrated through private satellite boxes, including DStv with 7.8-million households, OpenViewHD with 2.3-million households and StarSat with 450 000.