The national broadcasting system needs recapitalisation, including the migration to digitisation, and government has not allocated the funds needed, Sentech said in parliament today.
Sentech, the state-owned signal distribution company, said it has not received any capital for infrastructure upgrades, resulting in a creaking signal distribution system that uses obsolete equipment and is serviced by an aging workforce.
Sentech has not been informed by government about the R600 million allegedly allocated to it for the development of a wireless telecommunications infrastructure project that is supposed to reduce the cost of connectivity, Sentech added.
"There is a major risk to the state of the broadcasting infrastructure if government funding is not urgently addressed," said Colin Hickling, Sentech`s non-executive chairman, speaking before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications.
He was supported by Sentech CEO, Dr Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, who likened the state of the broadcasting system to the aging infrastructure used by power utility Eskom.
"If we do not get the right allocations soon, we will have a similar situation to that of Eskom, where obsolete equipment can no longer be serviced and kept running," she said.
Terrestrial digitisation
The terrestrial digitisation of TV (DTT) was essential to the country, because using satellites would place it at the mercy of a foreign owned entity, said Sentech COO Gladwin Marumo. It would also allow for better spectrum usage, more language representation, cheaper tariffs for broadcasters and would stimulate industry.
"Comparing satellite to DTT broadcasting shows the cost to the consumer would be R3.5 billion against more than R8 billion respectively. The cost of the project would be about R4.1 billion for DTT compared with R8.1 billion for satellites," he said.
Marumo said if government did not approve funding for digitisation soon, it would be placing broadcasting facilities for the 2010 World Soccer Cup in jeopardy.
"High definition TV is a given for this year`s World Cup in Germany and we cannot, as a country, offer a lower service, otherwise outsiders will definitely think this is darkest Africa. We have to start now on digitisation, otherwise there will be a sudden rush and that will be extremely expensive," he said.
Sentech requested R300 million for digitisation in 2003, R600 million in 2004, and later that year it presented a R1.3 billion five-year roll-out plan, followed by a request for R915 million in 2005. This year government allocated it R200 million over a three-year period for digitisation.
Sentech is also asking for R15 million over a 10 year period for its contribution to the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System that will link East Africa.
"We need to be part of that consortium in order to reduce our costs," said Mokone-Matabane.
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