{"id":53666,"date":"2014-02-26T16:25:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T14:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=53666"},"modified":"2014-02-26T16:25:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T14:25:26","slug":"governments-push-for-digital-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/53666\/governments-push-for-digital-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Government’s push for digital migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government has outlined its spending plans relating to ICT for the medium-term, which includes\u00a0finalization of\u00a0the broadband implementation plan, along with expected progress on digital migration.<\/p>\n

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan delivered his budget speech 2014 on Wednesday (26 February), and with it, estimates of national expenditure relating to the ICT sector.<\/p>\n

South Africa is currently preparing itself to\u00a0migrate\u00a0from analogue to\u00a0digital\u00a0broadcasting, and has set itself a target of\u00a01\u00a0April 2014 as a\u00a0switch over\u00a0date for digital television.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the Department of Communication’s budget over the medium term is allocated to the\u00a0Infrastructure Support programme, which accounts for 43.6% of total expenditure over the medium term\u00a0and makes transfers to the department\u2019s public entities and state owned companies over which the department\u00a0exercises oversight.<\/p>\n

Within the medium-term, the communications department would make transfers of the set top box subsidy for poor households through\u00a0the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa.<\/p>\n

The transfer to the agency is the reason for the\u00a0significant spending projected over the medium-term in the Digital Terrestrial Television sub-programme, Treasury said.<\/p>\n

“Between 2011\/12 and 2013\/14, R690 million was transferred to the agency to cover the subsidies for the set top\u00a0boxes. These funds remain unused due to a delay in finalising the criteria to determine qualifying households\u00a0and the court case around the set top box mechanism,” government said.<\/p>\n

\"Pravin<\/a>

Pravin Gordhan<\/p><\/div>\n

While the funds have been retained for use over the medium-term, an additional R700 million has been made available under the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) sub-programme to enable the agency to roll out set top boxes, antennae and installation over the medium term.<\/p>\n

The spending focus will also be on preparing the broadcasting digital migration call centre,
\nimplementing the broadcasting digital migration awareness campaign on digital terrestrial television, and expediting\u00a0the roll-out of infrastructure for digital terrestrial television by providing a subsidy scheme for set top boxes.<\/p>\n

R265 million over the medium-term has been allocated for the broadcasting digital migration project.\u00a0Of this,\u00a0R195.1 million is allocated to the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the digital library and a digital\u00a0playout centre.<\/p>\n

Sentech is allocated R69.8 million in 2014\/15 to finalise the roll-out of digital terrestrial\u00a0television infrastructure. These allocations do not include the R1.5 billion allocated to the Universal Service and\u00a0Access Fund to subsidise set top boxes, antennas and installation, Treasury said.<\/p>\n

Treasury also noted that funds have also been re-prioritised towards planning for the broadband roll-out, which accounts for the strong\u00a0growth in the Broadband sub-programme over the medium-term.<\/p>\n

Digital objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DoC aims to facilitate broadcasting digital migration from analogue to digital television by:<\/p>\n