Minister for Communications, MS Nomvula Mokonyane, said the changes to the delivery model of the Broadcast Digital Migration/Digital Terrestrial (DTT) will include a shift to a market/retail driven approach through collaboration and partnerships with the private sector and industry where government will no longer be involved in the procurement of Set-Top-Boxes (STBs), ware housings, transportation and installation of devices.
She was speaking at the media briefing in Pretoria on the 19 October 2018 to announce the canning of the current Broadcast Digital Migration which is often known as the Digital Terrestrial (DTT) project.
In revising the model, the Minister said a Digital Migration Advisory Council will be established including a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) supported by the Digital Migration Advisory Council and an interdepartmental working group.
The current indigent TV households figures will have to be revised as the data is 10 years old.
The supply of decoders to viewers will follow a retail supply model with a subsidy threshold and a voucher system to provide help to indigent TV households. The Set Top Boxes will be eliminated as mandatory transitional equipment for DTT.
The old delivery model will be implemented until the current set top box stock has been depleted.
The new delivery model will be implemented during the period Nov 2018 and March 2019 with the execution done using local, district, provincial structures.
The analogue switch off will be done in a phased manner per province and per transmitter with Free State being the first province to switch off by December 2018.
The Minister said delays in implementing the Broadcast Digital Migration has led to South Africa missing the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) migration deadline of 17 June 2015 and its broadcasting signals are now no longer protected from any interference.
She said the current model where government procures, distributes and installs decoder for indigent TV households is complex, costly and delays occur due to the lack of the required capacity to deliver.
An amount of R7.5 billion is still required on the current model to complete and there is only 7% of the estimated 5 million subsidized TV owning households.
The current model only focuses on subsidized decoders and not on the full ecosystem of devices that enable digital migration and technological changes including policies and standards that were used are now outdated.
As a result, the perpetual delays impacted on the immediate release of the much needed High Demand Spectrum (Digital Divided).
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