Cabinet has approved the ownership support roll-out framework for television set-top boxes to poor households, government spokesman Jimmy Manyi announced on Thursday.

Briefing the media following cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Tuesday, he said the executive had further approved full subsidisation of television-owning households in those areas of the Northern Cape affected by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

“Cabinet approved the framework for set-top boxes to poor households that own television sets and the full subsidisation of outdoor and indoor antennae and the installation costs associated with rolling out digital signals.

“It further approved the full subsidisation of television-owning households in the SKA project area,” he said.

The deadline for so-called digital migration is June 2015. After this date, old-style analogue television sets will require an STB to receive the digital broadcast signal. Manyi said Cabinet had also approved the STB manufacturing sector development strategy.

The government would “further consult on measures to ensure localisation”. This would spur job creation along the total digital migration value chain, he said. — Sapa