South Africa's digital television migration process, and the switchover from analogue broadcasts to digital terrestrial television (DTT), could be delayed yet again/further.
The Nafcoc Broadcasting Consortium plans to bring court action tomorrow (Monday) against the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (Icasa) regarding Icasa's final Digital Migration Regulations that was published in February. Nafcoc took Icasa to court in July last year regarding the proposed DTT regulations and e.tv also launched court action over the regulations just before the end of last year.
I asked Lawrence Mavundla, president of Nafcoc, for a response but didn't hear back from him yet. The Nafcoc Broadcasting Consortium is not happy that the SABC, e.tv and M-Net will be getting additional digital TV channels during the migration process to help entice viewers to make the switcover from analogue TV to digital. The consortium feels it will strengthen the existing broadcasters and make it difficult for potential new TV channels to start in South Africa.
I talked to Paseka Maleka, Icasa spokesperson an hour ago to hear if Icasa has any comment or whether this latest proposed court action could derail the digital migration process in South Africa. ''The broadcasting authority can only react and respond once legal documents are entered and we can study the complaints regarding the DTT regulations. So far we have received nothing.''
