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and install a set-top box (STB) to thousands of poor TV households but many more households are not even on the outdated list.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

As millions continue to watch on analogue South Africa's deadline for switch to digital TV is pushed out again

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's latest switch-off deadline of 31 December 2024 for analogue transmitters in the country's long-delayed migration process to digital terrestrial television (DTT) has inevitably been pushed out yet again, now to 31 March 2025.

Millions more 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 - must still make the switch.

If these households in the four remaining provinces of Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape - collectively representing more than 50% of South Africa's population - suddenly lose their TV signals, they will be cut off from news and information. 

It will also prove disastrous for South Africa's broadcasters like the SABC, eMedia's e.tv and community TV channels like Cape Town TV (CTV) who will experience further debilitating viewership losses, with diminished ratings impacting advertising rates, and in turn cratering their ad revenue.

Around 174 analogue transmitters across these provinces are still on.

On Thursday evening Solly Malatsi, South Africa's 12th minister of communications and digital technologies dealing with the issue of the country's DTT transition, announced that the switch-off is once again being pushed out.

The deadline of 31 December is moved out by another three months to 31 March 2025.

The SABC asked the government for another 12 months' delay until 31 December. It's not clear what extension eMedia asked the department for. eMedia declined to say what period it wanted the deadline date to be pushed out by when asked in a media query. 

"This extension will ensure that as many indigent households as possible will enjoy their right to access broadcast services," says Solly Malatsi.

He said that the department "communicated this decision to the broadcasters and relevant stakeholders" in a meeting on Thursday "and commit to continue working together with them on this project".

"Their commitment to ensuring that the free-to-air households migrate is critical to the success of this programme."

"The postponement of the analogue switch-off deadline recognises the considerable delays that have plagued the Broadcasting Digital Migration (BDM) project since its inception and provides the necessary relief that makes provision for more time to migrate as many South African as possible before the final switch-off."

According to Malatsi, he has "directed the director-general to implement consequence management for any individuals responsible for failures within the department".

Around 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.

"There is no denying that the Broadcasting Digital Migration project has dragged on for far too long, costing the government R1.23 billion for dual illumination, which refers to the simultaneous transmission of both analogue and digital signals," Malatsi says.

No money has been budgeted for dual illumination for 2025 to keep analogue transmitters on and it isn't clear where the department will get the money from for the next three-month extension.

Since 2015 South Africa has spent over R12 billion on the switch to DTT.

"This process is costly and cannot be sustained indefinitely. More so, at a time when the fiscus is under extreme pressure," Solly Malatsi says.

"Our immediate focus between now and the end of March 2025 is to aggressively accelerate the delivery and installation of set-top boxes to indigent households to ensure that as many households as possible are prepared for the switch-off."

ALSO READ: DTT: South African TV's R12 billion, 496 000 undone, 'unmitigated disaster'

DTT: South African TV's R12 billion, 496 000 undone, 'unmitigated disaster'

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African government has spent over R12 billion on the "unmitigated disaster" that is the country's switch-over process from analogue to digital TV and will be forced to once again postpone the cut-off date at the end of this month since 469 000 households still need a free decoder and installation while many others who don't qualify must buy one.

While not a cent was budgeted for 2025 for South Africa's over-run and extremely costly and wasteful digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration process, Solly Malatsi - South Africa's 12th minister of communications still dealing with the incomplete issue - will very likely have to postpone the latest deadline of 31 December 2024 yet again.

It's not clear where the millions of rand will come from for next year to continue with dual illumination - the process of broadcasting the analogue and digital signals of TV broadcasters like the SABC, e.tv and community TV stations like Cape Town TV (CTV) - as well as to install set-top boxes (STBs) for poor households currently gathering dust in locked South African Post Office storerooms and Sentech warehouses.

A shocking 469 000 poor TV households - many with incomplete and outdated contact details - must get their government-subsidised STBs installed for free before the end of this month. Practically, this is an impossible task.

Besides poor households who qualify for a box, there are many more so-called "missing middle" TV households who must pay for a STB but don't see the urgency or need, might not have the money and can't even buy one since STB are not actually even available in commercial retail. These people must get either MultiChoice's DStv, or eMedia's Openview satellite TV services to switch from analogue to digital.

South Africa is ticking ever closer to having missed the international deadline to complete the switch from analogue to digital TV ... by a decade. The international deadline to which South Africa agreed was June 2015.

Since then the South African government has spent billions of rand and will miss its own deadline - constantly postponed - yet again when 31 December 2024 becomes 1 January 2025.

The government has spent far over R12 billion and pays between R130 million to R160 million per year for dual illumination. There is no money budgeted for this must-pay expense from 1 January.

The SABC, e.tv and community TV channels all want another extension of the 31 December cut-of date. 

If they suddenly lose millions of TV viewers who lose their analogue TV signals without being able to watch TV further, they lose viewership - something immediately picked up by the South Africa's TV ratings system gathering and compiling TV ratings daily.

When broadcaster's viewership plunges, they have to adjust their advertising rate cards, charging less for ad spots due to fewer viewers. This will have a devastating impact on their revenue, especially the already crippled SABC. 

Besides revenue, viewers will lose access to news and public information services, again damaging the SABC.

The SABC asked the department of communications and digital technologies for a deadline extension of another 12 months to 31 December 2025. It's not clear what extension of the deadline eMedia requested and eMedia declined to say in response to a media query when it was asked.

The SABC says its planned satellite TV service with SABC TV channels as an internet-enabled and connected decoder, will target this "missing middle" TV households, similar to the millions of households who have made a once-off payment to buy eMedia's Openview satellite service.

There remain 174 analogue transmitters across the country's most populated four provinces which must be switched off at the end of this month in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

When these transmitters are switched off in these provinces - collectively representing more than half of South Africa's total population - millions of viewers will be wiped from the TV ratings system and lose television signal access.

Khusela Diko, chairperson of the portfolio committee for communications and digital technologies, told parliament that she doesn't "want to be called alarmist but I think this issue is really an unmitigated disaster".

'Just a mess': South Africa's public broadcaster lost 40% of its audience in 5 provinces as former SABC CEO slams government's analogue switch-off 'not done properly'.

by Thinus Ferreira

The struggling South African public broadcaster which will post yet another loss for its 2022/2023 financial year of over R1 billion abruptly lost 40% of its viewers across 5 provinces last year when the government suddenly switched off analogue transmitters - a process that the former SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe says was "not done properly" and a process he slams as "just a mess".

The beleaguered SABC has seen ratings continue to slip for its SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 TV channels - due to old content, repeats, Eskom's ongoing blackouts due to the country's electricity-generating capacity crisis, as well as the switch-off of Sentech's analogue signal transmitters.

South Africa's long-delayed process to switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) continues to be dragged out due to incompetence, corruption and mismanagement by the South African government and its department of communications and digital technologies, as well as numerous court cases from industry players over the years.

In an interview with the City Press newspaper, the former SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe, whose 5-year contract expired at the end of June, slammed the analogue switch-off which suddenly saw 5 provinces lose their SABC analogue signals, as "just a mess".

"It wasn't done properly. It was just a mess," he said.

While the former SABC board in 2022 - when the SABC still had one before a half-year gap that stretched well into 2023 - told the former minister of communications Khumbudzo Ntshaveni that a haphazard analogue switch-off will severely damage the public broadcaster and that it should be done responsibly, the opposite suddenly happened.

The department and Sentech rapidly switched off the SABC's analogue signals in 5 provinces: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, the Free State and the Northern Cape.

With the switch-off 40% of the SABC's viewership in those provinces disappeared overnight. Now the government plans to switch off the SABC's analogue signals in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape - South Africa's largest remaining provinces - by the end of December 2024.

"According to figures from the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA), after the switch-off in those 5 provinces, 40% of our audiences were completely wiped off last year, which did affect our revenue," Madoda Mxakwe said. 

While 10.5 million people watched Uzalo on SABC1 in January 2022, that rating fell to 4.8 million after the analogue switch-off of Sentech transmitters.

"If a client had been paying us R200 million a year for advertising space, they began asking why they should pay the same amount when the viewership had been reduced from 10.5 million to 4.8 million," Madoda Mzakwe said.

244 000 poor South African TV households still waiting on their digital terrestrial TV installation and government set-top box.

by Thinus Ferreira

Close to a quarter million poor South African TV households are still waiting for their subsidised digital terrestrial television (DTT) decoders to be installed South Africa's minister of communications and digital technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, revealed at a media briefing on Thursday afternoon.

Eleven years behind schedule, South Africa's government is still trying to complete the country's long-overdue switch from analogue to digital terrestrial TV, a process known as digital migration.

While the South African government and the parastatal TV signal distributor Sentech have started to switch off analogue transmission signal towers in several provinces - something that has damaged the TV ratings of the SABC over the past year - eMedia's e.tv has refused to do so, taking the communications department to the Constitutional Court and demanding that the process be delayed until more free-to-air TV households have access to DTT instead of simply being cut off from public television in South Africa.

The outcome of the court case in which e.tv has been victorious over the department, has seen the analogue switch-off deadline of 30 June 2022 pushed out further to an undetermined date.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that the new final date for households to register to receive a free DTT STB is now 30 September 2022, and hasn't declared a new final switch-off date.

On Thursday afternoon Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, at a DTT press briefing, said that 244 000 DTT installations still need to be done for indigent TV households earning less than R3 500 per month and who qualify for a free DTT set-top box (STB) decoder.

The 244 000 include TV households in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape who had their installations delayed due to adverse weather and flooding halting the process.

Between April and July this year there have been an average of 15 288 registrations from TV households applying for the government-subsidised STB, with the number of registrations declining.

"The total number of new registered households between April and July 2022 now stands at 61 155 and this translates to an average of 15 288 registrations per month - therefore, representing a decline in set-top-box applications and registrations," she said.

"The digital migration process is a national priority, and it must be completed without any further delay for the benefit of the country," Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said.

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."

31 March 2022 - The final switch-off of South Africa's analogue TV signals.

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".

South Africa's TV ratings set to tank in suddenly rushed digital migration plan: TAMS and e.tv warn millions of TV households will be wiped away and lose access, severely damaging TV biz and advertisers.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's TV ratings are set to tank. 

That's the stark warning from the custodian body of South Africa's TAMS TV ratings system, as well as e.tv, raising red flags over the government's suddenly rushed plan to complete its long-delayed digital TV migration plan to switch off all analogue signal transmitters by February 2022.

This suddenly rushed plan will leave millions of TV households without any television access, will severely damage the entire South African TV ecosystem, advertisers, cause TV ratings to crater while it leaves millions of viewers without access to television news content.

On Tuesday, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa's latest minister of communications and digital technologies, announced the latest amended rushed plan to flip the kill switch on all remaining analogue signal transmitters in the country's 9 provinces within the next 3 months.

eMedia Holdings that says the plan is not practical and extremely damaging, has now filed papers in the High Court to attempt to stop Khumbudzo Ntshavheni's latest digital terrestrial television (DTT) plan for a 31 January 2022 hard switch-off of analogue signals.

Although the South African government more than a decade ago promised that analogue TV signals in South Africa won't be switched off before all TV households haven't been switched over to digital terrestrial television (DTT), the government will now take television reception away from millions of TV households in South Africa.

These viewers will no longer be able to watch or listen to any content on any SABC TV channels or radio stations, e.tv, or community TV stations in the country as they lose analogue TV signals but don't yet have the means of receiving digital TV signals.

These millions of TV households are part of South Africa's TV ratings system that TV channels use to set advertising rates according to TAMS viewership figures. The result is that these TV households will disappear in large swathes when analogue signals are turned off.

Millions of South African TV households still watch television using analogue TV signals and haven't bought digitally-capable TV sets, or are poor households that haven't received the free government-subsidised set-top box (STV) for DTT because of corruption and incompetence, industry-in-fighting and ongoing delays in the country's digital migration process that had severely hampered and delayed the process for a decade and a half.

Over the past decade, TVwithThinus had reported numerous times - as lately as March this year - about the looming danger that analogue transmitters in South Africa will be switched off before all TV households have been migrated that will inflict massive damage on free-to-air broadcasters who depend on ratings and advertising revenue, advertisers, as well as the TV ratings system.

Analogue signal hard kill: Millions of viewers left in the dark

Khalik Sherrif, Media Holdings CEO, in an interview on eNCA (DStv 403), said Media and e.tv don't agree with the suddenly changed and rushed plan to switch off all analogue TV signals by the end of March 2022 "because we don't believe it's achievable at all".

"Analogue switch-off must happen," he said, "but in the way it's being rushed now, it is absolutely unachievable to do this by January 2022." 

He said there's an STB shortage with decoders that are not available, there's a microchip shortage around the world in all industries depending on chipsets, and that there are big questions around the logistics on installations.

"How is it going to be done? 5.6 million TV households in this country rely on analogue transmission," Khalik Sherrif said. "You need to do 500 000 boxes a month to meet the January deadline. It's not going to happen. Absolutely not." He said that eMedia's plan and suggested for the government's amended DTT plan has not been heard.

"This is an absolute problem for the country. There are people who are going to be left in the dark. There's going to be no television available to many millions of households and that's the problem."

He said that "more than 50% of people in this country watching television are watching it through analogue. 

SA's TV ratings: Warning of severe impact

Gary Whitaker, Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA) CEO, warned that South Africa's TV population will decline and that the country's TV ratings will tank if analogue signals are switched off before all viewers have migrated, with massive implications for the TV industry and advertisers. 

South Africa's TV universe is roughly 15.9 million TV households.

The passive TV households forming part of the TAMS panel are just over 3000 TV households that represent the almost 16 million TV households in the country. 

TAMS also measures analogue TV viewing, with 28% of the households in the TAMS panel who are analogue viewers and who represent 5.6 million TV households.

"TAMS reflects what is actually happening in the market. If analogue signals go off, anyone in our panel that loses their signal, we don't throw them out of our panel - they stay on - and they get measured as nil viewing. Zero viewing. Their viewership cannot be traded as a currency. The broadcasters cannot make money."

Gary Whitaker said that "the deadline as it stands now - we know that's there's going to be a severe impact on free-to-air channels".

He said that if there is a hard switch-off of analogue transmitters in South Africa wiping away millions of viewers "we have to abide by what's happening in the market and we will be agile as far as we can. If there is a switch-off by March 2022 that's when we will enact our plan to establish a new TV universe that will take into consideration fewer TV viewers. The TV population will decline." 

DTT: Free-to-air broadcasting in jeopardy

Khalik Sherrif said that the government's plan for a sudden hard switch-off of analogue signals within months will have a massive negative impact on free-to-air broadcasters like community TV stations, the SABC, e.tv and others.

"Free-to-air broadcasters make their money from advertising. Now you switch off everybody on a date. Hard switch-off. Viewers won't be measured. Advertisers will be disappointed. Marketers will pull away. Free-to-air broadcasting in the country stands in jeopardy because we lose our businesses," Khalik Sherrif said.

He said there must be a planned approach with Media suggesting a timeframe of 15 to 18 months - not 5 months.

Khalik Sheriff said that it's not just eMedia that will be impacted but all of free-to-air broadcasting in South Africa. "What is the recourse? We have to go to the court. There's no other way. We're definitely not partnering with the department of communications on this matter".

In the court affidavit eMedia filed in court, Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, states that "very recent events have raised alarm bells regarding the process that the minister and Icasa intend to follow to achieve analogue switch-off".

"The so-called 'fast-tracking of digital migration at a 'rapid speed' - without the preconditions for a lawful digital migration process having been achieved - fundamentally threatens e.tv's ability to continue to reach the majority of its audience".

"It also threatens the rights of the public to have access to free-to-air television from either the SABC or e.tv - both of which use analogue spectrum for the purposes of broadcasting their programmes."

"Around 23.5 million viewers in South Africa watch e.tv on average each month. This equates to approximately 6.7 million households in which e.tv is viewed."

"Given than 58% of these households are dependent on the analogue broadcasting of e.tv's news and programming, an analogue switch-off would deny some 13.6 million viewers in South Africa the opportunity to view the broadcasting of the only source of free-to-air independent television news and information programming."

"Many of these viewers are among those who do not have sufficient economic resources to afford digital subscription platforms such as DStv, and who cannot afford to purchase sufficient data to stream news and programming via mobile networks."

"To comply with constitutional obligations and public promises, before digital migration can be completed, the government must ensure that these 13.6 million viewers are provided with the necessary equipment, be it set-top boxes and/or reception devices, to continue to receive these broadcasts."

"e.tv has calculated that an additional 3.9 million set-top boxes are still to be provided to its viewers to achieve this purpose."

ALSO READ: South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.

ALSO READ: e.tv and the SABC silent over the drop-off danger and the threat of disappearing audiences in South Africa's digital terrestrial TV switch-over.

ALSO READ: South Africa's government now ready to leave millions of poor analogue TV households behind in long-delayed digital migration switch that that gets yet another revised deadline of March 2022 for completion.

ALSO READ: SA'S DIGITAL TV SHOCKER: The 'secret' R800 South Africa's TV viewers don't know they'll have to pay just to keep watching their free television.

South Africa's government now ready to leave millions of poor analogue TV households behind in long-delayed digital migration switch that that gets yet another revised deadline of March 2022 for completion.

by Thinus Ferreira

The South African government is now ready to leave millions of analogue TV viewers behind in its switch to digital terrestrial television (DTT) with poor TV households who literally won't be able to watch television further as transmitters are switched off nationwide while they haven't changed to digital set-top boxes.

Meanwhile the country's department of communications once again amended and pushed out its deadline for provinces to fully switch from analogue to DTT that it agreed on and published in March, just 6 months ago.

It is estimated that there are close to 4 million South African TV households who are still on the analogue television platform. 

At the start of South Africa's long-delayed digital migration process, the South African government promised that analogue TV signals in the country won't be switched off before all viewers have not switched to DTT and have successfully migrated.

That is no longer the case, with the government that is now switching off analogue transmitters whether all analogue TV households in a specific provincial area have switched or not. 

The department of communications and digital technologies is still helping poor TV households with an oncome of less than R3500 per month to get a free DTT set-top box (STB) but will no longer wait for them to first have the box before switching off analogue transmission towers in provinces.

On Tuesday, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, the country's latest minister of communications and digital technologies, in a government briefing said that Tebogo Leshope, Sentech chief operating officer (COO) has now been appointed as South Africa's broadcasting digital migration project manager.

Multiple such DTT managers have come and gone over the past decade as South Africa missed the international deadlines for DTT completion, as well as the government and the department's own national deadlines with constantly moving goalposts.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Tuesday revealed that the department had once again shifted out the deadlines for DTT completion and analogue switch-off in various provinces it announced in March this year.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that analogue transmitters in the Free State will be completely switched off by the end of October or by the first week of November by the latest, followed by complete switch-off of the 11 remaining analogue sites in the Northern Cape province by mid- or late-November.

The remaining 15 analogue sites in the North-West province will be switched off by mid- or late-November as well, while all the remaining analogue sites in the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces will be switched off in the last week of December 2021 or the first week of January 2022 according to the latest adjusted list.

All remaining analogue sites in the Eastern Cape,Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces will be switched off by the end of January 2022.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, in the latest DTT completion promise, said that South Africa's digital TV migration process will be completed by the end of March 2022.

Poor TV households getting their television from analogue TV signals have until the end of October to still register at the struggling South African Post Office to receive a free STB. Households who register from November will only be getting a decoder between 3 to 6 months after the analogue switch-off date.

Only 1.18 million of the qualifying 3.75 million poor TV households in South Africa have registered for a STB. Out of this 1.18 million, the South African government only managed to "migrate" 556 954 to a set-top box. 

Meanwhile households who have received DTT decoders have complained that theirs have broken, no longer work, or that badly manufactured boxes are faulty or never worked properly. Meanwhile 840 000 STB are laying in Post Office warehouses collecting dust, still to be handed out and installed.

On Tuesday Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that 10.5 million TV households in South Africa have "self-migrated" from analogue to digital terrestrial television through private and commercial satellite pay-TV and free-to-air satellite TV.

Of this, 7.8 million TV households have been through MultiChoice's DStv, 2.3 million through eMedia Holdings' Openview, and 450 000 through China's StarTimes operating as StarSat in South Africa.

Sentech has already switched off 84 analogue sites across various provinces in South Africa. MultiChoice has switched off all of its analogue transmitters. The South African public broadcaster has switched off 105 of its 288 transmitters. Of the 95 analogue sites used by e.tv, only 4 have been switched off so far.

Not a single South African province has yet switched off all of its analogue signal transmitters.

Once again the department of communications trying to create a Digital Migration Call Centre that it should have done long ago and promised many times. 

On Tuesday Khumbudzo Ntshavheni promised yet again that a Digital Migration Call Centre has been created and that the details of it will be made available later in October 2021.

 Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that an app is being created so that poor people can register for a free set-top box and that it is under development. 

Since Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said that poor TV households only have until the end of October to register, and with the app still in development, it's unclear how households are supposed to use an app that doesn't exist in October to register before the end of October for a decoder.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the department now wants to go to cabinet with a policy proposal for codes and standards for digital TV sets as have been done in other countries to prevent the possible dumping of imported analogue TV sets in South Africa. It's unclear why the South African government and the department haven't done this years ago.

ALSO READ: South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.

After 3-year break with digital migration Nigeria says the country is restarting its switch-over process, plans to complete DTT transition by end of 2022.

by Thinus Ferreira

After a 3-year break during which nothing happened, Nigeria's government now plans to resume its digital migration process to move the country from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting, with the West African country that now says it plans to complete Nigeria's switch by the end of 2022.

Professor Armstrong Idachaba, acting director-general of Nigeria's National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), says that the country’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) project will be completed by the end of 2022 when the country will fully shift from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

"Nigeria has taken a decision that we are continuing with the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. The journey practically began in 2016 with the pilot rollout in Jos and a few years after, we have gone into phase two," says Professor Armstrong Idachaba.

"Under phase two, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other cities will be switched on to digital TV. We are going to many other cities and following the rollout time table, we hope that by the end of 2022, we would have completed the digital rollout in Nigeria."

Professor Armstrong Idachaba.is correct that Nigeria stated its digital migration process in Jos, Plateau State in 2016, followed by Abuja, Kwara, Kaduna, and Enugu - but the process then ground to a halt in Osogbo in February 2018.

After what appears to be a three-year break, blamed in part on a lack of political will and financial constraints, the launch will now resume in the country’s big cities, notably Lagos, with a completion date of the middle of 2022.

Nigeria, like South Africa and several other African countries, have missed the original deadline that was set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for completion of the switchover process that was meant to happen in June 2015.

South Africa's long-stalled DTT switch-over process has been marred the past decade and counting by corruption, constantly changing DTT standards, court cases and incompetent ministers of communications changing annually.

ALSO READ: South Africa's TV ratings system and broadcasters risk damage in new monthly analogue TV hard switch-off approach as signal transmitters are shut down in provinces before all viewers have switched to DTT or received set-top boxes.