The minister of communications, Dina Pule, today told parliament that the department of communications will now review the decision which the government forced onto South Africa's TV broadcasting industry - a means of encoding and in effect cutting off public TV signals and making it possible to lock out STB's.
South Africa's long-delayed switch-over to DTT, a process known as digital migration, has partly been stalled because of acrimony, in-fighting, drawn-out regulatory debates and court cases over set-top box control, the set-top box control mechanism and who should control it.
It happened because the switch to DTT - in which the viewer and the ordinary South African television viewer's TV watching experience should be paramount for the switch and adoption to ultimately be successful - got hijacked by the government and business interest which decided to make DTT and digital migration a "job creation" priority.
The past few years as the digital migration process stalled, the focus and emphasis in DTT shifted to set-top box manufacture, how a local STB industry in South Africa can be artificially protected (although South Africa is years behind in both price point, expertise and actual manufacture of a device which is only a temporary measure since its globally built into TV sets automatically), and squabbling over how to be able to turn STBs off and scramble free TV signals to prevent set-top boxes from "leaving" South Africa's borders and from cheaper yet functional imports coming into South Africa.
South Africa is the only country in the world where the government mandated set-top box control and a set-top box control mechanism for public, free-to-air television, raising fears that government or parastatal institutions would be able to decide what and whose set-top box(es) should be turned on or off.
e.tv took the government to court saying South African broadcasters - forced to make allowance for STB control and a STB control mechanism - should at the very least be in control of it and not the government or unilaterally assigned parastatal institutions. The court agreed.
It now appears that the government is considering scrapping STB control and a STB mechanism altogether, which would be in the interest of the ordinary South African consumer and the ordinary South African television viewer.
Without the system built into STBs the set-top boxes would cost less since it will demand less parts and electronic components. The software of a STB control mechanism also requires royalties which also adds to the overall price and which will also no longer be necessary and also help to drop the cost.
Furthermore South Africa won't be locked into a STB locking system the country will never be able to escape. It will also give South African broadcasters one less ongoing concern and technical aspect to run and maintain and South Africa's TV industry one less thing in DTT to have to spend money and resources on.
After finally settling on the DVB-T2 - the right and best standard for DTT - after another drawn-out uncertain process, dumping the mandatory STB control mechanism would be the second correct decision for DTT in South Africa in years.
Dina Pule told parliament today that department will soon be reviewing the mandatory STB control mechanism decision. She said removing STB control from set-top boxes is "one way of fast-tracking the roll-out of digital terrestrial television".
Dina Pule told parliament that the government is "ready to implement the set-top box manufacturing strategy, which requires 30% local content as part of the electronic industry development".
