Missed digital terrestrial television (DTT) deadline of 17 June 'is not a train smash' says head of DTT programme, Solly Mokoetle.

South Africa which missed the internationally agreed to deadline of 17 June 2015 to complete the switch from analogue to digital TV transmission "is not a train smash", says Solly Mokoetle, the head of the country's DTT programme.

South Africa is years behind schedule for digital TV and missed the agreed to deadline of 17 June of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to complete the commercial switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) - a process which takes around 5 years.

South Africa no longer has the protection of the ITU when it comes to things like signal interference. The multiple expensive ongoing DTT delays have hampered South Africa's release of much needed spectrum and continue to negatively impact growth and development in South Africa's TV broadcasting and broadband industries.

Despite several false starts and constantly moved announced dates by the department of communications over the past decade, South Africa has not even started the commercial switch-on period, which will take a few years to get to the stage where analogue signals in the dual illumination period can finally be switched off.

TV households will have to buy an expensive set-top box (STB), not yet available, for around R700 to R800, and in several instances also a new TV antenna at an additional cost, to get the digital transmission of existing TV channels.

Around 5 million poorest TV households will get a free STB government hand-out box. Another 3 million South African TV households who will not qualify, will have to buy a STB.

"Digital migration is not a single day event," said Solly Mokoetle. He was a panelist at Monday morning's The New Age breakfast briefing held in Sandton.

"Digital migration is a process," said Solly Mokoetle, admitting that "we've had some stumbling blocks in South Africa for a while, around the approval of the [DTT] policy."

"In fact, in South Africa we already have dual illumination. Which means if you have a STB out there that can receive the digital signal, then definitely you will be digital."

"And I'm saying it is not a train smash," said Solly Mokoetle.

"On 17 June when the ITU deadline reached there were 5 countries in Africa which met the deadline. Most countries have taken long. The United Kingdom took about 13 years to do DTT. We have taken 8 years of which we are still going through the obstacle of policy."

"We are looking at a period of about 18 to 24 months to be able to complete the entire digital migration and to release the digital dividend. But before that we will have reached the stage of analogue switch-off and we will be advising minister of communications Faith Muthambi to declare that period very, very soon," said Solly Mokoetle.


Millions more poor homes than 5 million households
Solly Mokoetle said the STB will no longer come with internet services on the decoder. "Not at this point. The box that we have is a simple box that enables you to watch your television as you were watching before but with better quality and more channels. It is about that. It is not more bells and whistles."

"We are talking here about the subsides box. There will be boxes in retail that are issued out by the broadcasters themselves that may have other features."

Sekoetlane Phamodi, coordinator of the SOS Coalition, which is a civil society, non-profit pressure group advocating for public broadcasting, said millions more South African TV households - many more than the 5 million - are poor according to the 2011 census and need to be given subsidised STBs.

"They also do desperately need to be given these boxes for free as well, given what the census figures tell us about the economic conditions of the people of our country".

"It's quite true," admitted Pumla Radebe, the chairperson of the state-owned Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA).

"When government took the decision, the number was set at 5 million households. And the recent census that we have, has indicated that the figure of indigent households have grown. We currently have a figure of 8.2 million households," said Pumla Radebe.

BREAKING. SA's Set top box Control for digital terrestrial television (DTT) will be video scrambled; will be to protect STB manufacturing industry.

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The controversial set top box (STB) control that the government now wants in STBs for digital terrestrial television for South Africa when the country moves to digital terrestrial television (DTT) will be video scrambling of TV signals.

The South African government now also claims that it wants STB Control to protect the local STB manufacturing industry. This means that the South African government places manufacturers' ''rights'' higher than the rights of free access to information of ordinary South African citizens.

''The encryption is [what is known as] STB Control. It's one and the same,'' Richard Waghorn, the SABC's chief technology officer explained to parliament today, after the shocking relevation yesterday in parliament that the department of communication wants to include STB Control, or encryption in the decoders to control access to the free-to-air TV signals.

''The SABC was written to by the department of communications at the beginning of March, asking the SABC as well as the other free-to-air broadcaster to start the process of procuring a vendor for the STB Control system. As a result of STB Control, the TV signal will then be video scrambled,'' said Richard Waghorn.

Richard Waghorn told parliament that ''the rationale for STB Control is to protect and to encourage the STB manufacturing industry in South Africa''.

''By having that technology in the box, it means that the STB's can't be taken out of South Africa or across the borders. STB Control is the encryption system. There's different kinds of encryption, and that's where we currently are. This is something that was discussed at the minister's governance board a the end of August and something we need to have further discussions about.''

ALSO READ: South African government wants digital TV control with DTT; M-Net objects to the set top box control system.

BREAKING. Consumers to pay even more for DTT in South Africa; government says weak digital TV signal will need new antennas as well.

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The bill is fast mounting for ordinary South African TV viewers for whom the cost is steadily increasing to get digital television: I can reveal that South Africa's 11 million TV households will also need to buy a new antenna besides just a set top box (STB) during the country's switch-over from analogue to digital broadcasting – because the digital signal will be ''too weak''. That will cost another R110 for over half of the TV households, besides the R700 per STB.

ALSO READ: The government finally confirmed what I've already spilled RIGHT HERE earlier - that new antennas will also be needed.

While millions of South Africans will have to cough up an estimated R700 to buy a STB for South Africa's TV switch-over, a process known as digital migration, the department of communications is now saying that new antennas will also be needed. That will cost another R110 for most viewers. Add another R31 ($4) if the government adds an encryption system, or so-called STB Control, into the box so that the government can control who gets the signal and prevent STBs from being used outside of South Africa. This means that the STB price has just shot up to a new estimated price of R840 per STB which the majority of South Africans will have to pay in full.

Meanwhile the government has said that only the poorest of South African households will receive a subsidy to buy a STB but has given no indication yet of how the subsidy will work, how it will determine which households qualify, and what the subsidy amount will be. The rest of households will have to fork out the full amount to switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT) when broadcasters start moving to a digital broadcasting system.

The department of communications dropped a bombshell in parliament and told the portfolio committee on communications matter-of-factly that ''60% of South African TV owning households will require a (new) outdoor antenna; 40% will require an indoor antenna, depending on the strength of the signal. 'We have not catered for that when we dealt with the issue of the subsidy. There is a need for us as government to ensure that people have the right antenna to get the signal.''

The department said an outdoor antenna will cost an estimated R110 and an indoor antenna will cost R45.

This is going to balloon the overall cost of DTT in South Africa, increasing the financial burden on ordinary consumer and TV viewers. The department did a cost analysis for DTT in 2006 and determined that the entire programme of digital migration would cost South Africa R4,2 billion if the migration happened within the three year period for broadcasters, signal distributors, industry and consumers. ''The cost needs to be updated,'' the department said.

''If one could do with just (indoor) antennas or do away with antennas that would have been the ideal situation,'' the department told parliament. ''Unfortunately in practice this is not possible because we are using the Sentech network. The Sentech network was designed for analogue television. The network is not dense enough to enable the (digital) signal to be strong enough to provide coverage using indoor antennas only. We're sitting with an unfortunate situation whereby certain viewers need to outdoor antennas. If we were to try and implement a system for everybody to use indoor antennas, it would mean building a substantial number of transmitting stations. This would not only have cost implications but also for the digital migration timelines involved.''


ALSO READ: South African government wants digital TV control with DTT; M-Net objects to the set top box control system.
ALSO READ: Is M-Net being held back from launching its digital terrestrial television (DTT) offering?
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ALSO READ: For DTT, the South African government wants a ''consortium'' of local manufacturers to produce set top boxes (STBs).

BREAKING. South African government wants digital TV control with DTT; M-Net objects to the set top box control system.

The South African government wants to control television in the country, specifically control of the access control mechanism once television broadcasting switches from analogue to digital broadcasting or digital terrestrial television (DTT).

Not only is the government considering a conditional access system – or encryption – for the set top boxes (STBs), the government also wants to own the system of access control. Meanwhile M-Net has objected against encryption for non- pay TV in South Africa. The encryption or so-called STB Control addition will add another R31 to the estimated STB price of R700 that South African viewers will have to cough up.

There are no examples of any terrestrial public broadcast services or commercial free-to-air broadcast on DTT being encrypted elsewhere in the world.

''Who should own the system of access control?'' asked the minister of communications Roy Padayachie yesterday in parliament while discussing DTT. ''In the way the process has unfolded, the responsibility to decide on these questions was left to the broadcasters. The current state of play in the world is that the ownership of the system must be in the hands of the state and not in the hands of the existing broadcasters. If it is in the hands of the state, we would then ensure that new broadcasters can enter the terrain as the broadcasting landscape changes and that new entrants will not be particularly disadvantaged in the future,'' Roy Padayachie said.

South African TV households will have to buy a STB to continue to receive broadcasting signals and TV channels when South Africa starts the switch to DTT known as digital migration. The government has said the switch-over is to start in earnest from April 2012. That's when broadcasters e.tv, the SABC and M-Net will all launch more digital TV channels as a switch-over incentive for viewers, while continuing to broadcast their current analogue channels. That process known as ''dual illumination'' will continue until December 2013 according to the government, when the old analogue signal will be switched off. The SABC and e.tv will call their combined new DTT offering Multiview with the SABC that will have 18 digital TV channels.

The South African government is now again raising the highly-controversial access control system and so-called STB Control. The amended Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy of August 2011 calls for STBs with STB Control that would ''enable addressable messaging and the ability to turn off lost or stolen decoders''. Meanwhile the SABC and e.tv that in 2008 objected to the encryption of free-to-air services now suddenly want STB Control in a seemingly about-face. The SABC and e.tv have recently jointly issued a tender for the provision of STB Control solutions.

While the requirements seem reasonable, this functionality could have far reaching implications for broadcasters, TV viewers and would give sweeping power to whoever controls this mechanism. This will give the government the power to turn STBs on and off – enabling the government to decide when to allow or cut TV channels coming through the device. The government has already had one meeting with e.tv, the SABC and M-Net together regarding STB Control. M-Net objected to the set top box control system, the department of communications told parliament on Tuesday.

STB Control that encrypts video and audio content would effectively end true public free-to-air broadcasting in South Africa as it's known today. STB Control could be used to disable homes that do not have a paid-up TV license. That would result in more than half of all South African television households being cut off and no longer having access to any television services, although the government currently claims it wouldn't do that.

STB Control will have to be built into STBs and will raise the cost of the box. ''The cost of encryption will add another $4 to the STB, largely due to royalty that must be paid to the technology company that wins the reward of encryption,'' Roy Padayachie said. ''We're discussing that with e.tv, SABC, MultiChoice and Sentech.''

STB Control would also cost the viewer more money long after the initial STB purchase. Consumers would have to call to activate and reactivate STB Control, must have a telephone and money to pay for calls. STB Control would mean that STBs will only work within South Africa.

According to policy STBs must be made locally. It will be an incentive to manufacturers since grey imports would be useless. An SABS approved STB will have to be bought in South Africa which will automatically be disabled if taken outside borders. STB Control will also enable address traceability and also allow for stolen STBs to be disabled.

''STB Control would negatively impact on the ability of the South Africa viewing pubic and vulnerable groups in particular to access free to air television services,'' wrote Gerhard Petrick, an engineer and DTT expert and a former councillor of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).


ALSO READ: Is M-Net being held back from launching its digital terrestrial television (DTT) offering?
ALSO READ: Marketing and information on South Africa's digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration process an utter disaster. Here's why!
ALSO READ: For DTT, the South African government wants a ''consortium'' of local manufacturers to produce set top boxes (STBs).