CAPE TOWN– More than five million poor television household owners will receive free Set Top Boxes (STB) from government, stated the Department of Communications in a release on Monday.
This replaces the previously approved partial subsidy of 70% and is included in the Broadcasting Digital Migration Amendment Policy which was approved by Cabinet.
The distribution of the STBs will prioritise households in border region areas of the country, avoiding and minimising signal interference between those regions and neighbouring countries.
The Amendment Policy also included the control system in the STB, a frequent source of disagreement among free-to air broadcasters.
These prior disagreements had negatively impacted on South Africa’s ability to implement broadcasting digital television within the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) agreed timelines.
The deadline for the turning off of analogue television signals is 17 June 2015, one South Africa is unlikely to meet.
Broadcasting digital migration is the migration of broadcasting services from analogue to digital technologies.
The main objective of this is to clear the radio frequency spectrum currently occupied by broadcasters, enabling the provision of wireless mobile broadband services and other innovative applications.
The STBs will only be used in the transition and will not be a permanent feature in South Africa’s free-to-air broadcasting system.
“We believe the provision of definition of the STB control system in the final policy will assist in clearing the confusion regarding the use of control system in the STBs,” said Communications Minister Faith Muthambi.
In order to accelerate migration, the department has stated that 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 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 must have capabilities to enable the provision of government information and services.”
Broadcasters wanting to include conditional access in the provision of broadcasting services to its customers will not be prohibited from doing so and will have to make their own investment in the acquisition thereof.
The department will consult with Cabinet to determine and announce the analogue signal switch-on and switch-off dates.
“We call upon all key role players in the broadcasting fraternity to put behind them all their differences and work together to deliver digital television to our people, thus ensuring universal access to broadcasting services in line with the Constitution of the Republic,” said Muthambi.
The department will provide further details of the distribution and the Amendment Policy is to be clearly defined when the policy is published.
ANA