SA’s poor can apply for free TV decoders

Applications can be made at post office

WITH government’s broadcast digital migration (BDM) programme underway, provisions have been made to help the poorest of the poor migrate from analogue to digital.

BDM is aimed at bridging the digital divide between those with access to digital and information technology and those with either limited access or none at all.

Households with incomes below R3 200 a month can now apply for a digital television decoder – popularly known as a set-top box – at their local post office.

Department of communication spokesman Mishack Molakeng said the broadcasting digital migration policy that was gazetted in March last year, stipulated that indigent/ poor television owning households, who earn less than R3 200, qualify for fully subsidised decoders.

“This policy decision was taken to ensure that the poorest of the poor are also able to migrate from analogue to digital,” said Molakeng.

Households who already own a decoder will not need a set-top box.

Those who don’t and earn more than R3 200 will need to buy a decoder if they want to continue watching television.

Asked how much the new set-top box would cost for those who did not qualify for the subsidy and could not afford a DSTV or OpenView HD decoder, Molakeng said government’s focus was to ensure indigent and poor households migrated from analogue to digital. “As government we are not involved in the retail space so are not sure how much [a set-top box] will cost.”

Geert Bataille, head of the retail unit at the SA Post Office said once South Africa switched to digital television transmissions in about 2019-20, all television sets would need a settop box to continue working.

“A large portion of the Northern Cape has already switched to digital television transmission, and all qualifying households in that area have been issued with set-top boxes,” said Bataille.

He said they had put registration procedures in place to ensure no two persons from the same household applied.

“To make sure the same person does not apply twice, the Post Office’s point-of-sale system records the identity numbers,” Bataille said.

“To make sure two persons from the same household do not apply, the system also records the address provided on the proof-of-residence documents.

“The system will block all further applications from the same household.”

He said the post office was ready to issue subsidised set-top boxes.

Bataille said they had 17 warehouses for set-top boxes across the country to enable quick delivery and that the system automatically used the address to check the type of set-top box kit that each qualifying household needed (satellite transmission or terrestrial transmission). — ziphon@ dispatch.co.za