SA to miss digital TV deadline

2008-05-09 07:33

Ben Kelly & Troye Lund

Johannesburg - The government will not be able to make its 1 November 2008 deadline for the switch on of digital terrestrial television services in any form other than a symbolic gesture.

This is according to MultiChoice CEO, Nolo Lelthele who told Fin24.com that there simply isn't time for set-top boxes needed to convert the digital TV signals into an analogue signal capable of being understood by every TV in SA to reach consumers by that date.

Speaking at a media briefing in parliament on Thursday Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casiburri told journalists that the policy document needed to take the digital migration process forward would be ready by June.

The document, which is already a year overdue, was promised by the department in February and has yet to be delivered.

The minister said that the hold up was caused by the specifications for the set-top box and some broadcasters had complained that they were not involved in the decision making process and had to included

The main sticking point seems to be whether to include a conditional access system in the box with the SABC pushing for the technology to be included and e-TV fighting against it.

Conditional access systems allow whoever controls the system to block the signal getting through and could be used to enforce TV license payments by the SABC, although this was denied by the SABC at the time.

Gerdus van Eerden, chief technology officer at MultiChoice, explained that for the set-top boxes to get into the hands of SA's TV viewers it would take at least 3 months for the SABS to ratify the specifications - as is required by law and then another 16 weeks to get the first batch of devices manufactured.

These would then need to be sold to TV viewers.

He estimated that for any meaningful deployment to take place before the start of the 2009 Confederations Cup - the precursor to the 2010 World Cup - the policy would have to be issued by June at the latest.

Deploying digital terrestrial TV is one of the commitments that the government has made to FIFA with regard to the 2010 World Cup. Any further delays would put SA's ability to meet this commitment in doubt.

- Fin24.com

- Finance24