Free-to-air broadcaster e.tv has been given permission to take its fight against the government\u2019s digital migration policy to the Supreme Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n
Pretoria High Court Judge Bill Prinsloo granted e.tv leave to appeal on Friday\u201a signalling further delay to the country\u2019s fraught attempt to migration from analogue to digital broadcasting.<\/p>\n
The move to digital\u201a which is mandatory globally\u201a is behind schedule after South Africa missed the June 17 deadline.<\/p>\n
The case heard in the High Court concerned set-top boxes that the government plans to subsidise so that households without a digital platform\u201a such as a pay-TV decoder\u201a can receive a digital signal.<\/p>\n
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi amended the government\u2019s policy and said that the set-top boxes would not have an encryption function.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster argued that the amendment effectively barred it from ever being able to encrypt its broadcasts because the cost of doing this at a later stage is prohibitive.<\/p>\n
While encryption is not necessary for the reception of free-to-air broadcasts\u201a e.tv said its ability to encrypt future broadcasts is \u201cessential to its business plans\u201d because\u201a without it\u201a audiences will end up with a second-rate viewing experience and unable to watch premium shows.<\/p>\n
Multichoice\u2019s M-Net and the South African Broadcasting Corporation have disputed this.<\/p>\n
Judge Prinsloo agreed\u201a saying in his judgment that the government should not have to pay for the private\u201a commercial aims of individual broadcasters.<\/p>\n
But on Friday he said that since his judgment involved the interpretation of legislation\u201a \u201cthere is a reasonable prospect that different courts may come to different conclusions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Moreover\u201a the legislation at the centre of the court battle is relatively new and has yet to be considered by any other court\u201a he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe broadcasting digital migration process is something that directly affects the vast majority of people in this country\u201a\u201d said Judge Prinsloo.<\/p>\n
It is also a process that is under way globally and will be with us for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a matter of national importance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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