Court halts South African television's 31 March 2025 analogue TV switch-off

by Thinus Ferreira

The Pretoria High Court on Thursday stopped the South African government from switching off South Africa's analogue TV signals at the end of this month, granting a reprieve to broadcasters like the SABC, e.tv as well as millions of TV households still depending on analogue TV.

South Africa's department of communications and digital technologies and its minister, Solly Malatsi, as well as parastatal signal distributor, Sentech, were interdicted from shutting down the remaining analogue signals in the four remaining and largest provinces at the end of March.

eMedia's e.tv and civil society pressure groups like SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) once again had to take the government to court to prevent a switch-off, after its ongoing failure to ensure that millions of TV households have been switched over and have access to public television through digital terrestrial television (DTT).

The government planned to flip the kill switch on analogue TV at the end of December 2024, and then pushed the date out to the end of March 2025 - the umpteenth extension in a derailed process that has taken over 15 years.

The South African government has not budgeted for "dual illumination" - the process of transmitting both analogue and the same digital signals in 2025, a cost that has skyrocketed and already cost the country billions of rand over the past decade.

According to Judge Selby Baqwa's judgment, "The operation of the final analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2025, as announced by the minister of communications and digital technologies on 5 December 2024, is suspended".

"The minister of communications and digital technologies is interdicted from taking any steps to implement the switch-off of analogue signals and ending dual illumination."

Baqqa also found that Malatsi failed to properly consult with the industry and stakeholders before making his analogue switch-off date decision, also handed the department a cost order for the court case, and noted that the 31 March switch-off date "is irrational".

The department of communications and digital technologies still have to provide and install a set-top box (STB) to thousands of poor TV households but many more households are not even on the outdated list. 

Furthermore, households have more than one viewer, meaning that millions of viewers are still waiting to be switched to DTT.

Then there is also the so-called "missing middle": TV households who earn more than R3500 monthly and who don't qualify for a STB. They have to buy a new TV set or a STB which they either can't afford or can't even find in retail since it's not stocked.

e.tv to court again to demand further extension in South Africa's digital TV switch-over with 'devastating impact' warning for country's TV ratings

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's umbrella TV broadcasters, together with organisations supporting public broadcasting, are back in court demanding the government push out the analogue TV signal switch-off deadline date looming at the end of March, warning about the "devastating impact" and the loss of a third of the country's total public TV audience overnight.

The SABC, e.tv and community TV stations collectively face the existential danger of the overnight loss of millions of viewers on 1 April when their ratings will plunge and with that their precious ad income.

The SOS Coalition and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) - organisations that lobby for the protection of public broadcasting - have now come on board and filed an affidavit in court supporting eMedia's e.tv that says it has once again been forced to go to court over the imminent switch-off date.

They say South African television risks losing almost a third of the entire remaining public access TV viewing audience overnight if analogue signals are cut in two months' time.

South Africa's last deadline date for the switch-off of analogue TV signals in the country's long-delayed digital migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) was 31 December 2024.

Last month, in another last-minute scramble, Solly Malatsi, minister of communications and digital technologies, hastily announced that the switch-off date would once again be pushed out by another three months to the end of March 2025.

But even these three months are not enough of a reprieve for the SABC, e.tv and community TV stations like Cape Town TV (CTV).

No money was budgeted for the DTT process beyond the end of last year and it is unclear where the department, parastatal signal distributor Sentech and others, will find the money for the current three-month extension that will cost millions more.

It costs the government and Sentech between R130 million to R160 million per year to transmit the same TV signal - for instance SABC1 or SABC3 - as both an analogue and a DTT signal, a process known as dual illumination.

Solly Malatsi is South Africa's 12th minister of communications and digital technologies overseeing the morass of the country's failed DTT migration process that has cost the country already over R12 billion over the past 10 years.

Last year the SABC told the department of communications and digital technologies that the public broadcaster would like the deadline to be extended by another year to the end of 2025. 

eMedia running the country's only commercial TV broadcaster e.tv didn't specify a specific extension date and said it isn't against the DTT process but that more time and a reasonable switch-off extension is required.

Now e.tv is once again taking the government to court over the disastrous DTT process and the latest deadline. 

The broadcaster already took the department to court previously and won in the Constitutional Court in 2022 over the DTT switch-off deadline.

Three years ago the court declared the then minister of communications' deadline of 30 June 2022 unconstitutional and recognised the massively adverse impact the switch-off then would have had on the public and the broadcasters.

Massive TV audience loss risk

On Friday SOS and MMA joined e.tv's latest court fight and lodged an affidavit at the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria, saying that although there's been yet another three-month DTT switch-off extension, that it is still not enough time to avert a South African public broadcasting disaster.

According to the groups' affidavit, the premature analogue signals switch-off on 31 March on the public, public broadcasting the SABC, community TV channels and e.tv would have a "devastating impact".

The groups are also upset about MMA and SOS "exclusion from regular consultations with broadcasters".

SOS and MMA note that if the government and Sentech were to flip the switches across the remaining provinces and kill analogue TV signals on 31 March 2025, "Poor and marginalised communities will be cut off from free-to-air television thus denying their right to access to information".

What will follow will be an immediate "Loss of advertising and sponsorship revenue for the SABC" with the groups warning that "The free-to-air audience will diminish from 55.1% of television household population to 26.6% of television household population". 

That will be 28.5% of the free-to-air audience - almost a third of South Africa's remaining public  TV audience that contribute to South Africa's television ratings - which will be gone overnight. 

"We are hoping that the High Court rules in the public interest as the Constitutional Court did in 2022," the groups say.

"We are also hopeful that the government will reconsider and postpone the analogue switch-off date of 31 March 2025 to ensure a proper roll-out of the set-top boxes (STBs) so that no South African

is left without access to television."

Battle to just get boxes

There are millions more South African TV households who either haven't had their free set-box box (STB) installed yet by the government as well as the "missing middle" who earn more than R3 500 and must buy one - although none exist in retail - and must still make the switch.

A shocking 467 000 poor households who have registered for the government-subsidised set-top boxes have not yet had these installed, with STBs gathering dust in locked South African Post Offices and Sentech warehouses.

This is also just the number of households the government is aware of and appears on its outdated database list. 

The department of communications and digital technologies has no idea how many people and TV households exist who are still making use of analogue TV and must pay to buy some type of bridging solution like MultiChoice's DStv, eMedia's Openview, a new DTT-enabled flatscreen TV set or some type of other STB.

This is also why the SABC wants to start its own satellite TV service, similar to Openview, to offer a type of pay-once solution to the "missing middle" to switch from analogue viewing to getting the SABC TV channels and radio stations through a decoder. 

The SABC says there are millions of these viewers in South Africa - TV households still on analogue who must pay for a STB but don't see the urgency or understand the need.

While e.tv refused to go along, kept its analogue signals on and was largely spared the devastating consequences of audience loss, the SABC that initially kept quiet and went along as the government turned its signals off in province after province over the past three years, saw its audience reach and ratings steadily diminish – something that the public has since called "devastating" and a "disaster".

Around 174 analogue transmitters across South Africa's most populated provinces - Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape - are still on.

Collectively these four provinces' TV households represent more than half of South Africa's total population.

In the vast majority of cases, one "TV household" on the country's TV ratings system (TAMS) has multiple viewers. 

Depriving these TV households of their TV access will immediately wipe them - and the programmes they watch - from being counted towards the overnight audience ratings of shows ranging from Uzalo on SABC1, Muvhango on SABC2 and Scandal! on e.tv.

Besides viewers cut off from TV news, current affairs and other educational programming, lower ratings will force broadcasters like the SABC and e.tv to immediately lower ad fees on their rate cards, which will lead to lower ad income, and lower overall revenue.

The same goes for community TV channels like CTV and others already fighting an uphill battle with exorbitant signal transmission fees.

The struggling SABC is already technically insolvent and battling an ongoing trend of multi-year traditional TV ratings erosion and can ill afford a massive audience plunge.

South Africa's SOS Coalition demands moratorium on country's analogue TV switch-off date of 31 December 2024 as millions of TV households face blank screens.

by Thinus Ferreira

With millions of TV viewers set to lose basic access to television channels like the SABC at the end of the year, the SOS Coalition demands that the South African government immediately stops it plan to flip the kill-switch on 31 December on the last of the country's analogue TV transmitters.

Millions of South African TV viewers still rely on analogue TV signals to receive and watch the SABC and other broadcasters like e.tv's TV channels.

South Africa's government and the department of communications botched the country's long-delayed digital migration plan and switch-over from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT). 

Delayed more than 15 years and marred by corruption, industry in-fighting, multiple dragged-out court cases, fights over everything ranging from formats and set-top boxes (STBs) to encryption control, as well as tender scandals, undue commercial influence, government incompetence and budget run-overs, the government is adamant to switch-off the last of parastatal sign-distributor Sentech's analogue transmission towers.

While outdated, subsidised STBs for the poor that cost millions to manufacture and procure are gathering dust, unclaimed in locked South African Post offices countrywide and while those that were handed out already broke down, the South African government will cut off millions of indigent households from the signals of the SABC and others on the last day of this year.

While the SABC already took a massive viewership knock over the past three years as millions of its viewers were wiped off the country's TV ratings system after viewers lost the ability of receive public broadcasting television signals, eMedia's e.tv remained mostly unscathed as it refused the switch-off of its analogue signals.

eMedia isn't against the DTT switch-over but told the government that it can't switch off its analogue e.tv TV signals if millions of viewers don't have the ability to watch or receive DTT. 

Although the government-run process is severely flawed and already more than a decade behind schedule, eMedia over the past two years cautioned the government that even more time is needed and that DTT has actually become an outdated broadcasting system which has already been surpassed by better technology.

Now the SOS Coalition, broad industry coalition association that advocates for proper public broadcasting, has launched a "Save Free TV" campaign in South Africa, demanding that the South African government imposes a moratorium on its plan to finally shutter analogue TV signals at the end of December.

The SOS Coalition says the initiative is "an urgent and necessary campaign aimed at safeguarding the constitutional right of access to information, in particular free-to-air (FTA) television, for all South Africans to access".

"This campaign comes in response to the ongoing broadcast digital migration process and the imminent threat posed by the scheduled switch-off of the analogue television signals on 31 December 2024".

"The Save Free TV campaign demands that the department of communications and digital technology immediately halts the analogue switch-off until critical measures are implemented to ensure millions of households do not lose access to FTA TV, their primary source for vital news, information, and entertainment."

Millions of SA viewers will lose access

While millions of poor South African households who qualify for a free STB has not received one, South African households who are not "poor enough" and who have to buy one for themselves to switch from analogue to DTT, can't do so.

The SOS Coalition says analogue TV shouldn't be killed off before at least 85% of poor TV households don't have a STB.

"We demand that the minister of communication and digital technologies impose a moratorium on the switch-off of any further analogue transmitters. We demand an agreed threshold of 85% for the roll-out of STBs to indigent households, and a timeframe for the procurement/availability of DTT kits in retail stores," the organisation says.

It also wants "a nationwide publicity and campaign on the analogue switch-off to ensure no-one is left behind" for the department "to investigate the future viability of DTT compared to direct-to-home (satellite TV), as well as an exploration of the cost of signal distribution and sustainability of DTT.

"The transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, while a significant technological advancement, poses a grave threat to access to free-to-air television," the SOS Coalition says.

"With between 2.2 million to 4.5 million households still reliant on analogue TV, the government's failure to effectively roll out STBs and raise public awareness regarding registering for a government subsidised STB and the implication of analogue switch-off, could result in millions losing access to essential information and services," the SOS Coalition warns.

"In an era where misinformation is rampant, the availability of credible and free news sources is more critical than ever. The Save Free TV campaign aims to ensure that no South African is left behind in this digital transition and that everyone can continue to exercise their right to accessible and reliable information."

The SOS Coalition has now started an online petition as part of its call for the postponement of the analogue switch-off date in South Africa.

South Africa's High Court orders a technical delay of the country's analogue TV switch-off date from April to July 2022.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's high court has ordered the country's government and its department of communications and digital technologies to technically delay the country's analogue television signal switch-off date from the end of March to the end of June 2022.

While the Pretoria High Court found that the government has done enough to help poor TV households get a free set-top box (STB), it also ruled that STBs for more than 507 000 households who have registered by 31 October 2021 to receive one, must be handed out and properly installed by 30 June 2022.

By the end of September another 261 000 households got STBs but millions of households still require a means to access DTT and risk losing their free TV access in the country and being wiped from the ratings system as households watching television. 

More than 8.25 million poor South Africans will be left without free-to-air television if analogue signals are terminated, with around half (4 million) of e.tv's viewers falling in this group.

In South Africa's long-delayed digital migration process to DTT, the government started switching off Sentech's analogue transmitters since March 2021, with five provinces that have had their analogue signals cut, including the Free State, Northern Cape, North West province, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

The Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have not yet lost their analogue signals and collectively comprise 68% of South Africa's total population.

eMedia took the government to court saying the suddenly-rushed date of analogue switch-off of 31 March 2022 is not realistic and will damage free-to-air broadcast ratings in the country like its e.tv channel, with the SABC that eventually joined eMedia after its rating also started falling, in criticising the minister's date decision.

Fin24 first reported that the Pretoria High Court has ruled that the government and department of communications must push out the switch-off date by a further three months to the end of June 2022.

The additional three months for digital migration from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) is far short of what eMedia wanted.

The High Court in its judgment said "It is in the interest of the country, the economy and for South Africans in general that the digital migration be finalised".

The High Court ordered e.tv to pay 50% of the minister of communications' legal costs, and the full legal costs of Vodacom and the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) who were two respondents in the court case.

eMedia told TVwithThinus on Tuesday in response to a media query that "e.tv notes the judgment of the High Court and is currently giving consideration to its legal options".

CTV warns: Millions of South African viewers to lose free TV access in government's rushed switch-off plan.

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."