by Thinus Ferreira
31 March 2022 - This is the date that South Africa's analogue TV signals across the country will finally be switched off when the remaining analogue transmitters will cease broadcasting in the country's long-delayed process of digital migration.
On Monday night Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies reiterated that South Africa will cease to broadcast analogue services on 31 March 2022 and complete the country's switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT).
While the SABC has remained silent, eMedia Holdings has warned that South Africa's TV ratings could be negatively impacted when existing South African TV households suddenly lose access to TV signals if they haven't switched over to a method to receive digital transmissions.
This would wipe TV households of the television ratings system, which would negatively impact advertising revenue for all broadcasters, since ad rates are determined by viewership.
On 8 February the minister ceremonially switched off the last of Sentech's SABC analogue signal transmitters in the Limpopo province, making it the fifth province in South Africa after the Free State, Northern Cape, North West and Mpumalanga which no longer have analogue signals beamed to TV viewers.
Plagued by industry infighting, corruption, cost-overruns, court cases, administrative bungling, a lack of leadership and constantly revolving ministerial figureheads, constantly changing regulations, encoding standards and codes, as well as encryption fights, South Africa is more than a decade behind in the switch to DTT since South Africa in 2006 agreed to the International Telecommunication Union's agreement to complete the switch by June 2015.
On 31 March 2022 the process of "dual illumination" - broadcasting the same TV signals as both analogue and DTT - will end.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says Sentech, providing signal distribution services to the South African public broadcaster, has ensured that the digital broadcast signal for the SABC has reached 100% through the terrestrial networks and those of pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv satellite TV service.
Meanwhile, many poor TV households who qualify for a free set-top box (STB), distributed through the struggling South African Post Office (SAPO), have not yet applied or received a decoder to continue to watch free-to-air TV channels like those of the SABC or e.tv.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says she has "considered progress with implementation of the cabinet decision to assist indigent TV-owning households with access to set-top boxes".
She says she is "satisfied with the number of indigent households that have registered for government assistance vis-à-vis number of available set-top boxes; progress with set-top boxes installations; and progress with the analogue switch-off in various provinces".
