Communications and digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says government plans to have its own set-top boxes (STBs) in the retail market.
However, information about pricing and availability timeframes have not been divulged, with Ntshavheni saying further details around this will be announced “soon”.
The minister yesterday briefed media about progress in the country’s Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) programme and analogue switch-off.
She pointed out that households that do not qualify for a government subsidy or government STB should be able to buy a government STB in the retail market.
Says Ntshavheni: “We are also in a process of creating STB capacity for any subsequent registrations and placement in the retail market for future replacement and access to any requiring citizen.”
Government has undertaken to assist indigent households that applied for STBs, which are required to convert digital broadcasting signals on analogue TV sets. Qualifying households − those with an income of R3 500 per month or less – are required to register for these devices at their nearest SA Post Office branch.
However, for the unsubsidised market, which is known as the ‘missing middle’, they’re expected to pay for their own decoders or STBs to meet the requirements for migration from analogue to digital.
The additional decoders are for those households that aren’t already connected through DStv, OpenView HD, StarSat, TelkomOne or smart digital TV.
Government decoders are not commercially available in the market; however, signal distributor Sentech issued a tender last year in search of STB manufacturers for the unsubsidised households.
Detailing some of the events over the course of the last months, Ntshavheni noted the successful conclusion of the high-demand spectrum auction by telecoms regulator ICASA.
The auction, she said, left the BDM process, particularly the analogue switch-off, with limited time to conclude for the National Treasury to access the over R14 billion proceeds of the auction.
Furthermore, ICASA announced a transitional period for broadcasting service licensees and signal distributors to ensure a seamless transition process for the switch-off of the remaining analogue transmitters to the end of June 2022, she stated.
The minister noted the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) is committed to ensure the 507 251 households that registered by 31 October 2021 have their STBs installed by no later than 30 June 2022, and the same for those the Gauteng High Court directed be installed by no later than 30 September 2022.
“As of 25 April 2022, of the 507 251 households, we had distributed 258 821 STBs to the beneficiary households and 109 000 STBs installed, with 6 973 beneficiaries not having been found at their registered addresses and could not be reached through the provided mobile numbers.
“We are pleased to report the completion of installations to all households that registered and qualified by 31 October 2021 for the Gauteng province. The installations of STBs for those who applied by 31 October 2021 in Northern Cape should be concluded in the next few days. Equally, we are on course to completing the remaining installations in the months of May and June 2022.”
Changes on the horizon
With the end-of-life stage for analogue technology, and digital TV becoming the way of watching TV in SA, the minister revealed that trade, industry and competition minister Ebrahim Patel gazetted an invitation for the public to comment on the introduction of a policy directive on the importation of analogue TV sets.
Ntshavheni explains: “The intention of the policy directive is to prohibit importers, retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers from shipping and importation of all analogue television sets classified under HS8528.7 after 31 March 2022.
“Understanding that the retail market will have analogue TV sets, the minister of communications and digital technologies has commenced consultations with TV set manufacturers and distributors within the country with the purpose of gazetting a policy directive to require all digital TV sets in South Africa to carry a ‘Go Digital’ stamp to assist [stop] consumers from purchasing analogue TV sets.”
Furthermore, the minister said given the prevalence of smart TVs in SA, Sentech will commence a process to create a channel to carry streaming content or OTT from the current digital terrestrial television (DTT)/direct-to-home (DTH) platform (decoders).
According to Ntshavheni, more details on this will be shared during the DCDT’s budget vote speech on 18 May.
“We will also provide further details on additional channels on the DTT/DTH platform during the budget vote speech, with the purpose of bringing new and additional content with new owners as part of growing and diversifying South Africa’s creative industry,” the minister concludes.
Share