In the South African media space, television is one of the most trusted sources of information. People rely on television to see what is happening across the country.
South Africans are always glued to their television sets to watch the robust engagements in Parliament, which at times end up in chaotic scenes.
When the deadly coronavirus hit the country, learners from the historically disadvantaged communities remained shut out following the nation-wide school closures.
Meanwhile, learners from well-off households in the neighbourhoods maintained learning continuity through television.
As a result of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, fans were also stopped from going to watch their respective teams playing in stadiums and because of that, most spectators had to watch the beautiful game on television.
The truth be told, even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the majority of South Africans in the deep rural areas, border lying towns and informal settlements, have not been able to watch television for many years because of the poor signal, writes Nthambeleni Gabara
The slow pace of switching off old-fashioned analogue television transmission to pave a new era in the broadcasting space for the benefit of viewers in the country remains a cause for concern.
Yes, there are no “television black out” beyond the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) deadline of 17 June 2015 for failing to discontinue the analogue TV signals and migrating to the much-awaited Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) format, but… we are no longer protected from radio frequency spectrum interference, I was told.
Over 156 countries signed an ITU agreement in 2006, to switch from analogue TV signal to digital transmission.
The agreement set up a frequency plan for Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. All signatories including South Africa committed to switch off analogue transmission by 2015.
The good news is that the country has already signed bilateral agreements of cooperation with neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana in order to mitigate cross border radio frequency spectrum interference.
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 worldwide move, which is being driven by the ITU.
The migration will release valuable spectrum, which will allow for more television channels, and will result in job creation in the communication, creative industry sectors and better quality broadcasting.
With the old-fashioned analogue TV signal, television picture quality is very poor even if one tries to move the aerial around, while the DTT revolutionarise the broadcasting space with more channels with crystal clear pictures and better audio.
South Africa initially aimed to complete the migration process in 2011 in what at the time was termed a Policy Date, but the programme suffered serious setbacks during the technology negotiations process.
At this point, the country remained with the ITU set date of June 15, however, South Africa also missed this date and furthermore, did not seek exemption at the 2015 World Radio Communications Conference (WRC-15) and thus the country did not qualify for another extension after missing the June 2015 migration deadline.
Now, the question is South Africa folding its arms regarding the biggest change to the broadcasting space in our country, which is also now a world trend? Certainly not.
During his 2021 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country must complete the broadcast digital migration by 31 March 2022.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Ms Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said: “this is the goal date that as a department we are working hard to ensure that it is met through the implementation of the Digital Migration Plan that was approved by Cabinet in September earlier this year.”
Progress on the Digital Migration Programme in SA
Minister Ntshavheni said that since the inception of the DTT programme, government commitment to provide indigent homeowners with a monthly salary income of less than R3500, who own TV sets, with free Set-Top Boxes (STBs) or subsidised decoders.
In order to view digital television signals on an ordinary analogue television set, consumers will need a so-called STB. The purpose of the STB is to convert the DTT signal for reception on an ordinary analogue television set.
If consumers have not acquired a set top box by analogue switch-off, they will no longer be able to view the existing terrestrial television broadcasting service.
In her own words, Minister Ntshavheni said: “South African citizens, who are still receiving television services directly from an aerial/antenna mounted on a pole and do not have a STB or smart TV set, should get a STB or smart TV in order to receive digital television.
“You will not be affected by the analogue switch-off, if you are already receiving your television through DSTV, OVHD, Telkom-One, StarSat and any other streaming platforms or you have a digital TV.
“Digital televisions that have in-built digital tuners enable viewers to receive DTT. We are aware that the majority of TVs manufactured and distributed after 2015 have digital tuners… to test if your TV has a digital tuner, run a manual or auto channel search on TV.”
The process of registering qualifying beneficiaries started in 2015, Minister Ntshavheni said, and to date 1.184 million households out of the estimated 3.75 qualifying households have been registered.
Following the low numbers of registered qualifying households, Cabinet approved a last call for registration with a cut-off date of October 2021.
The Minister said the last call was made fully aware of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on household incomes.
In terms of the call, qualifying households who register on or before 31 October 2021 will be connected before the analogue switch off and the households that register after 31 October 2021 will only be connected within three to six months after the analogue switch off.
She further said that since the inception of this programme, 556 954 qualifying households have been migrated from the current total of 1.84 million.
According to Statistics South Africa, almost 10.5 million households out of just over 14 million TV households self-migrated through private satellite boxes with DSTV leading with 7.8 million households, followed by OpenviewHD with 2.3 million and StarSat with 450 000 households.
To date, television signal distributor, SENTECH has been able to switch off all 84 sites of Multichoice’s analogue transmissions 105 out of 288 for the public broadcaster-the SABC’s analogue signal and four of the 95 of eTV analogue system.
Minister Ntshavheni said Cabinet has also approved the adoption of a Managed Integrated Model that actively involves all stakeholders including those in the broadcasting industry to contribute to the ramp-up of the STBs installation capacity through their use of the boxes of these players to ensure rapid reach.
“The broadcasters and SENTECH will continue to use local installers as part of the Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprise (SMME) development. As a department, we’ve started engagements with industry players and enterprise development entities including funders on additional opportunities and enterprise development support that could be made available to these installers.
“We’ve shifted from a staggered provincial approach towards a consolidated national approach, where STB installations and analogue switch off (ASO) will happen simultaneously in all the country’s 9 provinces although we anticipate different completion and migration dates,” she said.
The Minister also set up a Project Steering Committee composed of Chief Executive Officers and Technology Executives of all affected and participating stakeholders.
Chaired by Minister Ntshavheni, the committee does not only meet on a fortnightly basis to lead the switch-over process, but it also reports to Cabinet on a monthly basis. The Minister also appointed a project manager to oversee the digital migration and analogue switch off process.
Remember, the analogue sunset in South Africa will signal the dawn of a digital age in which everyone including those who are less fortunate can enjoy an extra choice of more channels of perfect digital reception.
The analogue switch off is the process in which analogue television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television.
The advent of digital technologies worldwide and the need to provide more spectrum for modern high broadband telecommunication needs necessitated the migration from the outdated analogue transmission methods to digital methods.
As the world continues to go through a television revolution of migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting, we too in South Africa, very soon, there will be no more snowy pictures on our television screens when we will be watching sport, news, health and Parliamentary channels.
The public bouquet services will also allow the masses in rural areas to access 19 SABC radio stations, which was not possible with analogue signals.
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Nthambeleni Gabara is one of the foremost thought leaders on marketing and communications in South Africa’s public service.