Jocelyn Newmarch
6 July 2009
Johannesburg — SA MOVED a step closer to digital broadcasting on Friday with the finalisation of draft regulations for digital terrestrial television.
The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) published the first draft in April.
SA needs to migrate to digital by 2015 as the outdated analogue TV signal will no longer be supported internationally after this date.
Under the regulations, the SABC could receive between four and thirteen new channels, depending on the technology used, as it had been allocated an entire multiplex for its own use and that of Trinity Broadcasting Services, an Eastern Cape community-based broadcaster, said Icasa councillor Robert Nkuna.
A multiplex distributes several TV channels on one frequency.
Independent station e.tv has been allocated 60% of the second multiplex . M-Net will receive 50% of a third multiplex to be reserved for pay-TV use, subject to it switching all its consumers from analogue to digital decoders within a year.
According to its submission to Icasa, M-Net had originally asked for an entire multiplex . The rest of the multiplex could be opened to broadcasters such as On Digital Media, Telkom Media and Walking on Water (WOWtv), which have already received licences for pay-TV services.
During this process of digital migration, set-top boxes or decoders need to be distributed to consumers so that analogue TV sets can receive digital broadcast signals.
The dual illumination period, during which existing TV channels are broadcast in both digital and analogue signals, could be extended to as late as 2013. Icasa said it would engage with the communications minister on extending this period.
According to the regulations, it is set to end on November 1 2011. This could double costs for broadcasters, as they pay to broadcast on two channels during dual illumination but only get revenue for one. However, said Nkuna, SA's migration was likely to be completed before this date. The broadcasters had been allocated additional capacity on the multiplexes to compensate them for this expense.
The commercial launch of digital television was planned for November 1 last year , but this is now expected in the second half of the year.
The three-year migration was heavily criticised when previous communications minister Ivy Matsepe- Casaburri announced it last year. At the time, WorldWideWorx MD Arthur Goldstuck said SA faced enormous logistical challenges in distributing set-top boxes to rural areas.
Southern African Development Community communication ministers decided last week the entire region should have migrated to digital broadcasting by 2013.
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