Digital TV Switch On

On 21 February 2007, the Cabinet of South Africa took a decision that the migration from Analogue Terrestrial Television (ATT) to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) will commence on 1 November 2008 and end on 1 November 2011.

The industry is migrating to digital TV in accordance with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) directive to ensure ongoing co-ordination and protection from interference.

The protection that all countries enjoy will come to an end by the year 2015. It is therefore crucial to complete migration before 2015.

South Africa has entered into agreements with other countries to ensure that there is no interference between various countries through its integrated frequency plans.

The switch-on from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) on the 1st of November 2008 is therefore an important step to ensure that SA falls in line with the ITU directives.

Cost to consumers

Consumers will however have to pay R 700 for a digital TV decoder to take advantage of the new digital broadcast.  Low income households will however receive a R 400 subsidy from Government for the new decoder.

Initially Sentech will roll out DTT "in the areas determined by the broadcasters in conjunction with the Department of Communications (DoC)", with both digital TV and analogue TV signals made available. 

The migration to digital TV is expected to take a minimum of three years. During this period viewers will still be in a position to receive the current analogue services of SABC 1, 2, 3 & eTV. The migration will also affect eTV and MNet.

The analogue broadcasting signal will be switched off on 1 November 2011.

Advantages

According to the Department of Communications "the migration is not just a project for broadcasters and signal distributors, it is truly a project for the nation."

The switch-on to digital will allow for more channels to be broadcast as it is more spectral efficient.  The SABC estimates that up to 8 new video channels can be provided with digital using the bandwidth of one analogue channel.

The migration from analogue to the digital terrestrial TV will release valuable spectrum which can be utilized for other services given that it is scarce.

"1 November 2008 will see South Africa taking its rightful place in the ICT sector by joining countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand, United States, France and Mauritius that are advanced in their migration process," said the DoC.