The government has finally approved the digital migration amendment policy that will see South Africa move from analogue to digital terrestrial television (TV).
Yesterday, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi announced that the cabinet had given the green light to the migration that would see an access control system included in TV set-top boxes.
“It will protect the government investment in set-top boxes, so that the box cannot be used outside the boundaries of South Africa,” Muthambi said.
The boxes would be provided free to more than 5 million poor households, who would be identified using the national means test, she added.
The migration comes just months before the June 15 deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union for the move from analogue to digital terrestrial TV.
Technology website Techcentral said the South African Communications Forum, an industry body that has supported set-top box control, had welcomed the cabinet’s decision.
The website quoted forum chief executive Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha as saying that the decision would move the migration policy forward.
She said the forum believed that including a control system in set-top boxes would be the “best for consumers”, as it would “provide a better experience for viewers of free-to-air broadcasts”.
In January, the government’s Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa closed the tender for the supply of the set-top boxes. The value of the tender has been estimated at R4.3 billion.
The ANC was not available for comment. But the ANC’s lekgotla last month said it had “directed the finalisation of the digital migration process to support broadband roll-out”.
Yesterday’s announcement meant an end to reported tensions between Muthambi and the ANC national executive committee, which last month said a cabinet decision taken last year in favour of encryption should be implemented.
But the access control stipulation was also set to spark a fiercer battle between those who supported unconditional access to the boxes and those who wanted it controlled.
Cosatu, which led the opposition to conditional access, yesterday cautiously welcomed the decision. e.tv and an array of civil society organisations had also wanted encryption.
Spokesman Patrick Craven said the federation was still going to study the proposed policy further.
“It’s better late than never,” he said, “but it does not change our position to oppose any attempts to privatise broadcasting in order to turn it into a commodity that can be sold.”
MultiChoice, which had lobbied for non-encryption, also said it was awaiting the publication of the final policy.
Jackie Rakitla, MultiChoice South Africa’s general manager for corporate affairs, yesterday said: “We welcome the clarification by the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, at today’s post-cabinet media briefing that the control system in set-top boxes will be a security feature only, and will not include conditional access or encryption.”
The DA said competing factions should now unite behind the cabinet’s decision.
“For too long, our ambitions to bridge the digital divide to deliver high-speed, ubiquitous wireless broadband to support e-government and fuel economic growth, for example, to all South Africans has been held hostage by powerful competing corporate and institutional agendas to control the broadcasting sector, and unduly profit from the government’s subsidised set-top box programme,” DA MP Marian Shinn said.
The United Democratic Movement’s Bantu Holomisa said his party supported access control only if it was used to protect the country’s territorial integrity. – Additional reporting by Sapa