BREAKING. Set-top box standards for DVB-T2 for South Africa to be finalized at the end of 2011; subsidy scheme to be revealed in August.

The minister of communications Roy Padayachie said is his budget speech in parliament today that South Africa's switch-over to from analogue TV broadcasts to digital terrestrial television (DTT) - a process known as digital migration - will have set-top box (STB) standards finalized by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABC) for the DVB-T2 standard in the last quarter of 2011 and the switch-over starting in the second quarter of 2012.

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With less that a year to go, no details have yet been made known as to the specifics of the subsidy process and how the department will choose and subsidize the consumer uptake of STB's in the transition to DTT. Roy Padayachie said the details of the subsidy scheme will be revealed in August 2011 when the plan will be presented to cabinet.

The department of communications will select local STB manufacturers in November 2011 to make the DVB-T2 enabled STB's that will be sold from 2012. In June 2011 the state signal distributor Sentech will switch on the first DVB-T2 test signal at the Brixton tower in Johannesburg for the Johannesburg metropolitan area. Sentech will try to cover 80% of South Africa by the end of 2012 with broadcasters' analogue signals that can hopefulyl be switched off by the end of 2013.