South Africa's digital TV transition 18 months from completion

Friday, April 17th, 2015
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Speaking at the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Workshop held from 15-17 April 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa’s Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, said:

“I am happy to report that South Africa is well on track to ensure successful broadcasting digital migration. We have established a Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Project Management Office, which is hard at work behind the scenes. The necessary Policy Amendments have also been finalised and were approved by Cabinet on 4 March 2015 and subsequently gazetted on 18 March 2015.

We plan to implement the project over an 18 month period and have put together a programme to guide us in this regard. We have also completed the Implementation Plan. I am informed that work to finalise the technical the Set Top Box Control Specifications is at an advanced stage.

I believe that SENTECH, ICASA and broadcasters shared their state of readiness with this conference. They are ready to travel with us on this historic journey.

Sentech has completed 84 per cent geographic coverage, with the remaining 16 per cent to be covered by satellite. All 178 transmitters are in place and DTT head ends have also been configured.

We have standards in place with (DTT SANS 862 DVB-T2) as approved by the South African Bureau of Standards. DTT regulations by ICASA are also ready.

We continue to engage with all the stakeholders involved in this process in order to encourage them to play their respective role in implementing broadcasting digital migration. As a country we can proudly say that we are on track with the implementation of the DTT programme.”