DoC appeal a blow to digital TV rollout: DA
DA Shadow Minister of Communications, Marian Shinn, says that a decision by the Department of Communications to appeal a South Gauteng High Court ruling is a blow to digital TV rollout.
Shinn also warned that it will take more than a year before STB manufacturers are chosen and able to start planning for production.
A host of companies – including listed firms Ellies and Altech – are vying to be a major player in the manufacture and distribution of the set-top boxes; however, without clarity on the control system, production cannot begin.
Shinn said in a statement that she will request that the Minister of Communications, Dina Pule, justify the decision that will further delay South Africa’s migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT).
The Department of Communications announced yesterday that Pule would appeal a South Gauteng High Court ruling in favour of e-tv.
E-TV initiated court action against the Minister when she assigned responsibility for the hotly debated “set-top box (STB) control” system to Sentech, rather than free-to-air broadcasters (SABC, e-tv).
According to e-tv, Pule had no mandate to make such a decision unilaterally, adding that it was understood that the administration of the STB Control system would reside with them and the SABC.
Set-top-boxes are necessary to translate the new digital TV signal (using the DVB-T2 standard) into something existing analogue TVs can display.
“This appeal will further delay progress towards South Africa’s migration to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) by the mid-2015 deadline, as the Minister is declining to name the selected manufacturers for STBs until this issue is settled.
“Should the appeal take about a year to settle it will take many more months before the successful STB manufacturers are chosen and able to start planning for production. It will then take another six to nine months before the STBs are ready to retail. This means than the majority of South Africans are unlikely to have STBs to enable them to watch high-quality digital television before the country is obliged to switch off its analogue broadcasting signals,” Shinn said.
The shadow minister called on Pule to focus her department’s skills and resources on developing and delivering the numerous projects necessary for the manufacture of STBs.
“The department also needs to provide details on the quantity and costs of the set-top subsidy programme for poorer households, and the logistics, funding and resources needed to market, install and support the subsidy programme,” Shinn added.
The DA stressed that the minister’s appeal is the second major bureaucratic set-back in three years to South Africa’s DTT rollout.
It noted that in 2010, under former communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda, the migration programme was thrown into turmoil when he set aside the European DVB-T standard in favour of the Japanese standard. The department later reverted to the European standard again.
“I will request that the portfolio committee call the Minister to explain her actions and the negative impact this will have in rolling out our much delayed migration to DTT,” Shinn said.
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