Digital television in South Africa could get rid of cumbersome and artificial, 'mandatory' set-top box control mechanism; plan to be reviewed.

Sanity appears to finally have come to the South African government and the country's protracted and long-delayed digital terrestrial television (DTT) switch-over, with the government which could soon decide to rather get rid of the highly contentious and bitterly contested set-top box (STB) control-mechanism the government unilaterally forced to be built into new digital TVdecoders for public television.

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".

No MultiChoice? Get Multiview. Free television in South Africa gets a new name for digital terrestrial television (DTT).

No MultiChoice? Then get ready for Multiview. The SABC and e.tv have decided to call their free digital TV offering that will include several new TV channels, Multiview – a name that might end up creating a lot of confusion under consumers during South Africa's switch-over to digital television broadcasting that will start from April next year.

South Africa's public broadcaster, the SABC, as well as the commercial broadcasters e.tv and M-Net have to switch from current analogue broadcasting to digital DVB-T2 television broadcasts and digital terrestrial television (DTT) – a process known as digital migration.

It's going to mean that ordinary South African television viewers and the TV households in which daily local soap operas like Generations, 7de Laan, Muvhango and Rhythm City have become cultural touchstones with a combined daily viewership of millions, will have to buy a special set-top box (STB) and in many cases also a new antenna. Viewers who don't buy an STB with an estimated cost of R700 are no longer going to be able to watch their shows once broadcasters start the digital migration process from April 2012. Broadcasters will switch their analogue signals off within a few years' time after a period of ''dual illumination'' during which they will be broadcasting both their current analogue signals but also the new digital signals.

So far the South African government has not yet said how the subsidy programme to buy an STB's will work, how it will determine which of the 11 million South African TV households are poor enough to qualify for a subsidy (estimated at five million households), or how the process will work. The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) are behind with publishing the manufacturing standards that STB's will have to adhere to.

The South African government is also lagging behind with appointing local manufacturers for STB production. The government is however expected to issue a request for proposals later this month from manufacturers who could supply the STB decoders needed to get digital TV signals.

As part of DTT the SABC, e.tv and M-Net are all planning to increase the number of channels they currently broadcast once they're making use of a digital broadcasting platform. The SABC and e.tv have now registered Multiview as the brand name for their free-to-air bouquet. Multiview should not be confused with MultiChoice which is a pay TV service and is a subscription based model.

The SABC plans to have 18 TV channels on Multiview. The SABC wants to run 18 digital television channels – including SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 – as well as all of the public broadcaster's radio services on the DTT multiplex. It will include SABC Sport as a channel, health and education channels, as well as the new 24 hour news channel the SABC wants to start. ''The channel offering that we will be providing, will be about attracting and retaining existing viewers,'' Richard Waghorn, the SABC's chief technology officer told the government last week.

Meanwhile e.tv is planning on launching its own additional new TV channels as part of Multiview. The broadcaster plans to unveil its commercial free-to-air digital channel bouquet within the first half of 2012 when it launches its DTT offering. The broadcaster said it is in advanced planning stages for its commercial DTT launch next year, that it's building control studios and is busy with content development for the new channels.

M-Net is likewise planning a pay-DTT offering for next year. M-Net is set to expand its analogue broadcast which currently only consists out of the M-Net channel, a sports channel cobbled together from various feed of MultiChoice's SuperSport channels, and the Community Service Network (CSN). M-Net will run multiple new M-Net TV channels, presumably single genre thematic channels such as comedy, drama and movies.

Why the SABC and e.tv – knowing that MultiChoice exists in South Africa – settled on Multiview as the name for their free-TV bouquet is puzzling. It could lead to confusion in a consumer market that is already going to presumably grapple with the concepts and terminology of a whole new TV system for South Africa.

Countries like Britain, Australia and New Zealand all went with the name Freeview for their DTT offering.

DVB-T2 APPROVED. But where is South Africa's process of digital terrestrial television now, and what has to happen next?

DVB-T2 for South Africa. With DVB-T2 that has now been approved and confirmed by the South African government as the digital television standard for the country moving forward - a standard welcomed by all the South African broadcasters and the South African television industry - where is South African currently in the switchover to digital terrestrial television (a process known as ''digital migration''), and what has to happen next?

Well, as South Africa's minister of communications Roy Padayachie explains, the deadline for switch-over has now been moved from November 2011 to December 2013 giving the South African TV industry and broadcasters an additional 2 years to complete the process to DTT whereby broadcasters will change their signals from analogue to fully digital broadcasts.

As I told you RIGHT HERE in November, the SABC is currently not investing any further money in DTT and the public broadcaster's digital broadcasting switch-over other than running its DVB-T trial. That will now definitely change with the certainty in a digital TV standard. Meanwhile M-Net and e.tv already started running a joint DVB-T2 trial (read about it RIGHT HERE) from the end of last year.

So, what has to happen next as South Africa's TV broadcasting industry moves on to the next phase of digital migration? What's the next steps? What is the South African government yet to do who has to spearhead this massive broadcasting switch-over undertaking, when does that mean for local set-top box manufacturers and what will the South African broadcasters do next?

For my full analysis to put the just-announced DVB-T2 standard confirmation into perspective, click on READ MORE below.