by Thinus Ferreira
Cape Town TV (CTV) is joining the chorus of extremely concerned voices warning about the South African government's suddenly-rushed plan to switch off all analogue TV signals in the country at the end of the month, warning that millions of viewers will lose their TV access and that it will damage free-to-air television and TV ratings.
It comes as e.tv's case against the government's switch-off date will be heard in the Pretoria high court on Monday and Tuesday 14 and 15 March.
After South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni suddenly switched to an aggressive province-by-province analogue TV signals switch-off schedule in 2021 - with the digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) now envisioned to end by 31 March - free-to-air TV ratings have started to fall as broadcasters lose viewers who haven't switched to set-top boxes (STBs) or new TV sets, and affecting ad rates.
After Sentech's analogue transmission towers for the SABC were switched off in the Free State - the first province to lose analogue television signals - TV viewers of the public broadcaster in 2021 plunged by a fifth (20%), with the SABC losing almost half of its TV audience (46%) in the Northern Cape and 34% of its TV ratings in the North West after those provinces lost their analogue transmissions.
eMedia took the decision to take the government to court to postpone the pronounced cut-off date of 31 March, with the case which will be heard today and tomorrow in the Pretoria high court.
Civil society groups like the Right2Know Campaign warn that the government is going to leave millions of ordinary South Africans without television access after 31 March and unable to get news, information and education programming.
In a statement, the department of communications and digital technologies says it "has noted with concern the misinformation and false claims that there is a pending loss of free-to-air television in South Africa".
"The misinformation seeks to create unnecessary anxiety about the end of dual illumination period and the gazetted analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2022. The claim that 14 million South Africans are going to lose free-to-air television on 31st March 2022 are preponderous at best and a figment of imagination at worst."
The department says poor households earning less than R3500 per month who applied for a government-subsidised STB by 31 October 2021 "will be connected before the switch-off and those who applied after the cut-off date will be connected within 3 to 6 months of the analogue switch-off date".
SA 'ill-prepared for analogue TV switch-off'
Like e.tv, the community TV station Cape Town TV says it is fighting to
keep its analogue broadcast signal on-air "as the country stumbles towards the
end of analogue TV transmission".
CTV says many of its current free-to-air viewers will lose access to the channel on 31 March since there are "too few
digital TV receivers in the market".
"Our research shows that South
Africans are very ill-prepared for the switch-off," says Karen Thorne, CTV station director.
"This
presents a serious problem for all free-to-air broadcasters on the DTT
platform. This is why e.tv is suing the government to postpone the analogue switch-off and its
legal documents include community TV broadcasters as affected parties."
She says poor households who register to get an STB will still have to wait "many months before you get the device".
"Most of the existing government
stocks have been earmarked for the 1.3 million people who have already
registered and there is no telling when more will be available. The global chip
shortage is a complicating factor that will extend the wait."
Millions of viewers to lose TV access
Karen Thorne says "We are certain that millions of
South Africans are going to lose access to television if the analogue switch-off takes place as
scheduled at the end of March".
"We know that less than half of
the government decoders have been installed nationally and there are few
decoders available for those who do not qualify for the subsidised devices. The
major retail stores don't stock them so you have to find one at a specialist
retailer or online supplier."
"We don't know how many digital
TV sets with integrated tuners are out there, but we do know from the
Broadcasting Research Council (BRC) that the proportion of television
households that only receive free-to-air television stands at around 5.6
million."
"Multiply that figure by an average of 2.5 people in a TV household and
that gives you an estimate of 14 million affected people. Many of these viewers
are going to find themselves without television on April Fool's Day if analogue
signals are switched off, particularly in the cities."
She says that a significant loss of audience
will be tough on free-to-air broadcasters and could even be catastrophic for
community TV channels like Cape Town TV.
"But the woes of the community TV sector don't end there
- SA’s community television stations are being forced to shift from their local
focus to become provincial broadcasters."
"While the expansion of broadcast
footprints will bring more potential viewers into the ambit of community TV
activities, it poses significant challenges for community broadcasters."
"For one
thing, it dramatically increases transmission costs because many more
transmitters must be hired from the national signal distributor, Sentech."
"CTV's signal
distribution costs will rise from R60 000 a month to R1.8 million a month - an increase of 2900%," she says.
"We have been raising this issue with the government
for many years but nothing has been done on the policy front to address this
problem."
Rush to sell spectrum damaging SA TV
Karen Thorne says "The prime driver for the analogue switch-off is
the auction of frequency spectrum to cellular operators, which has just taken
place. Cape Town TV operates on the frequency 559.25 MHz, which is not a part
of the digital dividend, so postponing switching it off will not disrupt the
spectrum auction and the allocation of frequencies to bidders in that
market."
"We have asked Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to postpone the analogue switch-off for this frequency so that
the dual illumination period is extended for Cape Town TV. This will enable us
to continue reaching Capetonians until such time as there is a reasonable
business case for CTV to exist in a sustainable fashion on the DTT network."
CTV says it has joined the #SaveFreeTV movement launched by civil society organisations concerned that the government's scheduled analogue switch-off date of 31 March will deprive millions of South Africans from access to television
due to the shortage of DTT receivers.
"CTV shares the concerns that e.tv and the #SaveFreeTV campaign are raising to postpone the analogue-switch-off in the major
population areas until there is an adequate base of free-to-air viewers on DTT."
Karen Thorne says the South African government is "not paying attention to the fate of free-to-air
television after the analogue switch-off in its rush to sell-off frequency spectrum to the
cellular operators".
"We understand that the SABC saw
a 30% drop-off in viewership in the Free State after its transmitters were
switched off in that province. Even this level of viewership loss will hit
community channels hard, but they are likely to lose even higher proportions as
their lower-income audiences scramble to find viewing options."
"We want to see an orderly, well-managed and realistic
process of migrating people to DTT," she says.
"This needs more time than is presently
being allowed and the government must engage in a constructive fashion with all
stakeholders to ensure that this happens successfully."
