South Africa still tracking well on renewed digital migration efforts

24th November 2021 By: Natasha Odendaal - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

South Africa is firmly on the path to digital migration, Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said during a monthly update on the country’s long-delayed transition from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television under the broadcasting digital migration programme.

The department has completed the analogue switch-off (ASO) in the Free State, with zero transmission black-outs recorded, while the last site in the Northern Cape is on schedule for switch-off by November 26.

The analogue signals in the North West will be switched off in line with the targets of the first week of December, she added.

Sentech has switched off all 84 Multichoice analogue transmission sites, 113 out of 288 SABC analogue transmission sites and four of the 95 eTV analogue transmission sites.

By the end of October, there were 48 453 new registrations of beneficiary households, which are households earning a salary of less than R3 500 that government committed to assisting with installation of set-top boxes to ensure universal migration, bringing the total number of registered households to 1.28-million, with 572 255 of the registered beneficiary households having been migrated.

Over 30 000 new registrations have been recorded so far in November.

The qualifying households who registered before October 31 will be connected before the ASO, while households that had registered after the cut-off date will only be connected within three to four months after the ASO.