South Africa to provide free STBs to 5 million poor households

South Africa’s Department of Communications has issued a statement on the government’s Cabinet meeting of March 4th. The statement included the following:

“Cabinet approved the Broadcasting Digital Migration Amendment Policy with the inclusion of the control system in the Set Top Box (STB), which will be clearly defined when the policy is published.

Government will provide free STBs to more than 5 million poor television household owners. The priority will be given to those households in the border region areas of the country. The Minister of Communications will announce the digital signal switch on and analogue signal switch off date shortly.”