Cape Town - Communications Minister Faith Muthambi is expected to shed more light on the country’s journey towards digital migration when she presents her Budget Vote speech in the National Assembly this afternoon.
South Africa needs to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting because its terrestrial broadcasting is still in analogue format.
Soon after her appointment to the portfolio, Minister Muthambi initiated the process of reviving the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration project.
Earlier this year, the Minister ensured that the final Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) policy was published in the Government Gazette.
The new policy seeks to clarify the use of a control system in Set Top Boxes (STBs) that will enable households to switch from analogue to digital broadcast signals.
Cabinet also approved the Broadcast Digital Amendment Policy, which makes provision for the inclusion of a control system in STBs and endorsed commencement of the country’s digital migration.
With the international deadline to migrate broadcasting services from analogue to digital next month, e-TV has taken the legal route against Minister Muthambi demanding that encryption be installed and made mandatory in the STBs which millions of South African TV viewers will have to buy.
DTT is a reliable and much cost efficient means to distribute linear television content and has many advantages over the old, analogue broadcasting that is still in use today.
Digital migration refers to the switch from an analogue broadcasting system to a digital broadcasting system and this has been a world-wide move which is been driven by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The Minister will table her Budget Vote and outline the targets and priorities for the 2015/16 financial year at 3pm.
Early this morning the Minister visited Gugulethu to interact with residents as part of government’s public participation programme. - SAnews.gov.za
