the media on digital migration attributed to the Minister
Matsepe-Casaburri
4 April 2007
From recent media reports it is clear that there is confusion regarding the
Pay TV licensing process that has been started by Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and the Broadcasting Digital Migration
Strategy process launched by the Department of Communications. The Department
would like to set the record straight on a number of issues.
* The first is that at no point has the Minister proposed that there be a
moratorium on pay television licensing process, as has been alleged by the
media.
* The second is that it is common and legislated knowledge that the licensing
of broadcasting services is and continues to be an ICASA process.
The document that was issued for public comment largely represents the
proposals of the Digital Migration Working Group which was made up of experts
and representative of the broadcasting industry in the main. The group handed
its report to Minister late last year.
The Department hosted a consultative workshop which was meant to collect
views from the broader Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
industry. It was made clear in the workshop that the draft strategy and the
implementation were not representative of the views of the Department and
therefore the Minister. Industry was given until 4 April to submit input for
consideration by the Department and gazetting.
The Cabinet took several decisions on digital migration early this year.
Most significantly the Cabinet approved a three year 'dual illumination' period
during which both the analogue and digital signals will be transmitted starting
with 1 November 2008. This is essential to ensure that the public has some time
to acquire Set Top Boxes (STBs) that would enable the continued use of current
analogue TV sets. Otherwise it would be necessary to buy digital ready TV
sets.
Migration of broadcasting system to digital will enable broadcasters to have
better capacity to provide more diversity of services especially broadcasting
in all South African languages, thus ensuring that South Africans are provided
with a much higher degree of local broadcasting content thus contributing to
building social cohesion and a common national identity sooner rather than
later.
At the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) the United Nations (UN)
Specialised agency for ICTs, to which the country is a member, has set an
international deadline of 17 June 2015 for the switch from analogue to digital
signal distribution after which analogue broadcasting will not be protected.
Our country intends to beat this target date.
For enquiries contact:
Albi Modise
Cell: 083 490 2871
Issued by: Department of Communications
4 April 2007
