SA TV goes digital

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 31 Oct 2008

The long anticipated migration from analogue to digital terrestrial TV (DTT) has taken its first concrete steps, with parastatal signal distributor Sentech due to switch on the first digital transmitters tomorrow.

In a media forum held yesterday, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said: "1 November 2008 will see SA taking its rightful place in the ICT sector by joining countries such as the UK, New Zealand, US, France and Mauritius that are advanced in their migration process."

According to Department of Communications (DOC) spokesman Joe Makhafola, while the signal will be available as from tomorrow, broadcasters will only start participating in the trial process on Monday.

The test phase is expected to continue until mid-2009, when the service will be made available to consumers. "DTT is a watershed moment in the South African TV industry and will provide greater opportunities to the country," he adds.

Makhafola says the broadcasters are definitely ready to provide digital TV and consumers can expect several new channels when the service becomes publicly available. "We are looking at the regular channels like SABC 1, SABC 2 and SABC 3. Added to this there will be SABC International and SABC Entertainment."

Viewers can also expect an additional channel from free-to-air channel etv and another for pay-TV broadcaster M-Net.

The DOC says the process to migrate the entire country to digital will be completed by 2011, almost four years before the global completion deadline. Until then, the industry will broadcast both analogue and digital signals, meaning consumers, who have not acquired the equipment needed to watch digital TV, will still have access.

Decoder trials

According to Lara Kantor, chairperson of the Digital Dzonga Advisory Council, the aim of these trials is to ensure any technical issues are detected and resolved before DTT services are made available to the public.

"We are excited to be witnessing the start of the broadcaster trials on DTT. We believe the trials will yield important findings to guide us, as we plan for the launch of DTT to the public in mid-2009," she adds.

According to Makhafola, the SABC, M-Net and etv will distribute 3 000 set-top boxes (decoders), required to view digital TV, to participants who will be involved in the trial phase.

According to the DOC, these boxes have been locally developed alongside the department`s strategy to grow the local industry. "Government has decided to encourage the participation of more black people to transform the local industry," notes Makhafola.

He adds that several companies have been involved in the development process. "It is a huge market potential, with eight million households to provide set-top boxes to. There is also the possibility of exporting the product to other African countries."

There are hints of concerns within the industry, with speculation that 3 000 decoders that will be used in the trial phase have not yet entered the country. Standards authorities are also speculated to have only recently received the decoders for checking and could take a few months more before approving the specifications.

The decoders are also expected to provide subscribers with access to e-government. Cabinet has approved R2.4 billion for the subsidisation of the decoders to the five million poorest households, with the expectation that the final costs of the units would be between R400 and R700.