SA misses digital migration deadline
SOUTH Africa yesterday missed the deadline for migrating to digital terrestrial television broadcasting and this meant the country would have to bear the responsibility for any harmful interference of any signals, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said yesterday.
Speaking to Business Report, ITU media relations and public information executive Sanjay Acharya said the country had let its right to international protection slip by missing the deadline that it had helped to set about 15 years ago.
No date had been set for the new deadline, but the countries that had not complied were encouraged to complete the process as soon as possible.
South Africa was a signatory to the development of “alldigital” terrestrial broadcast services for sound and television for 119 countries belonging to ITU Region-1, which consists of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and Iran.
According to an ITU progress map, South Africa is listed among the countries whose status is “not started”, in a category that is divided into: on-going, completed, not started and unknown.
Other countries with the “not started” tag include Armenia, Bangladesh, Belize, Central African Republic, the Comoros, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Turkey.
TechCentral editor Duncan Mcleod, speaking on Radio 702 yesterday, said the minister had made some progress. He said Communications Minister Faith Muthambi had published a final policy on broadcast digital migration, but that was under review at the high court as it had been challenged after the government had said it would not support the idea of encryption in the government subsidised decoders.
“Everyone is hoping there will be a commercial switch before the end of this year,” Mcleod added.
The ITU said digital broadcasting offered many advantages over analogue systems for end-users, operators and regulators. “Apart from increasing the number of programmes, digital systems can provide new innovative services, such as interactive TV, electronic programme guides and mobile TV, as well as transmit image and sound in high-definition (HDTV) and ultra-high definition (UHDTV),” it said.
It said digital TV required less energy to ensure the same coverage when compared with analogue, while decreasing the overall cost of transmission.
The more efficient use of radio spectrum brought on by digital TV also allows for the so-called digital dividend resulting from the freeing up of much-needed spectrum for use by other services, such as mobile broadband.
Sanjay said there would be no sanction against countries that had missed the deadline, but they had lost the protection of the ITU, which before the deadline could intervene in cases where signals were interrupted.
Writing in The Star yesterday, Muthambi said the television-viewing experience for consumers would not change because of the missed deadline.
She said a Digital Migration Programme Management Office that she had set up on taking office was hard at work and had undertaken a number of measures to mitigate the risks.
Among these, she said, was engaging with neighbouring countries including Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique to ensure that there would be no disruption in local broadcasting after the deadline had passed.