Pretoria - The Department of Communications has welcomed Cabinet’s decision regarding the approval of the Broadcasting Digital Migration Amendment Policy, with the inclusion of the control system in the set top box (STB).
With the international June deadline looming to migrate broadcasting services from analogue to digital, the department on Sunday said the inclusion of the control system in the STB will be clearly defined when the policy is published.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU)-agreed deadline for the switch off of analogue television signals is 17 June 2015. However, South Africa will not meet this deadline.
The issue of whether to include the control system in the STBs has been a source disagreement amongst free-to-air broadcasters for some time now.
Minister Muthambi said this disagreement has “impacted negatively on the ability of the country to implement the broadcasting [of] digital television within the ITU agreed timelines”.
Broadcasting digital migration is the migration of broadcasting services from analogue broadcasting technology to digital technology.
The primary objective of digital migration is to clear the radio frequency spectrum currently occupied by broadcasters to enable the provision of wireless mobile broadband services and other innovative applications.
Government aims to provide free STBs to more than five million poor television household owners instead of a partial subsidy of 70% as previously approved in 2008.
The distribution of the STBs will prioritise those households in the border region areas of the country to avoid and minimise signal interference between those regions and neighbouring countries.
“STBs are to be used in the transition to enable free-to-air broadcasting services to migrate from analogue to digital television and will not be a permanent feature in the free-to-air broadcasting system in South Africa,” said Minister Muthambi.
She said the definition of the STB control system in the final policy will assist in clearing the confusion regarding the use of a control system in the STBs.
For the purposes of accelerating the migration of free-to-air broadcasting television from analogue to digital, the control system will have the following meaning:
- control system does not mean a conditional access system nor does it mean an encryption of the signal to control access to content by viewers;
- control system refers to a security feature to encourage the local electronic manufacturing sector;
- the STB must have minimal switching (on/off) security features to protect the subsidized STBs from theft or leaving SA borders; and
- it must have capabilities to enable the provision of government information and services.
However, the new policy position does not in any way prohibit any broadcaster who will want to include conditional access in the provision of broadcasting services to its customers.
“It is the firm view of the department that broadcasters who will want to do that should make their own investment in the acquisition of a conditional access system,” said the Minister.
In consultation with Cabinet, Minister Muthambi said the department will determine and announce the analogue signal switch on and switch off dates.
She called on all key role players in the broadcasting fraternity to put behind them all their differences and “work together to deliver digital television to the people, thus ensuring universal access to broadcasting services in line with the Constitution of the Republic”. - SAnews.gov.za
