South Africa will start the process of migrating its television broadcasts from analog to digital format in June, and an access control system will be included in the requisite set-top boxes (STB) to decode the new signals. Those were the key points to come out of an announcement by communications minister Faith Muthambi after a Cabinet meeting in Cape Town on 5 March.
Although she did her best to put a positive spin on what has been a ludicrously drawn out process with multiple delays, Muthambi was disingenuous when she made the statement to reporters that migration to digital would start “as planned” on 17 June 2015. That was in fact the date stipulated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) by which analog broadcasts would be switched off i.e. the deadline for the migration to be concluded.
To provide just one blast from the past to put the delays in context, Roy Padayachee (a former winner in the game of musical chairs the SA government plays to select its communications ministers) stated as far back as 2011 that the original target the country had set itself for analog switch-off - November 2011 - was being pushed back to December 2013. It is now just over four years since he made that announcement and the process is still not even at the starting gate.
Good news for the government is that local manufacturers are champing at the bit to start making digital TV STBs, and can ramp up their production almost at the drop of a hat. Although Muthambi stated that STBs will be manufactured locally, she did not stipulate what proportion, but acknowledged that most of the manufacturing companies are ready to deliver as they are waiting for government to finalise its processes.
Cabinet approved a policy amendment to include a control system in the STBs. This will only be clearly defined when the policy is published, but Muthambi assured that it will be a security feature only, and will not include conditional access or encryption.
Government also committed to providing free STBs to more than five million poor households, although details about funding have been left up in the air. Muthambi said government will rely on the municipal free basic services (FBS) register to identify eligible households, and home owners must be in possession of a South African ID and a TV licence.
The consequences of failing to meet the 2015 deadline to switch off the analog terrestrial TV signals is that South Africa will no longer be protected against disruptions of radio waves that are used for analog broadcasts. In terms of network readiness, government says the country is standing at 82%, while the broadcasting companies in the country, including the public broadcaster, are ready with regard to content.
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