Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Vodacom fibre play pushes Maziv valuation above Telkom’s

      20 July 2025

      Crypto industry shoots for mainstream adoption

      20 July 2025

      Vodacom’s Maziv deal gets makeover ahead of crucial hearing

      18 July 2025

      Cut electricity prices for data centres: Andile Ngcaba

      18 July 2025

      Takealot taps Mr D to deliver toys, pet food and future growth

      18 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Samsung’s bet on folding phones faces major test

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      OpenAI to launch web browser in direct challenge to Google Chrome

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025
    • In-depth

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

      10 July 2025

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | Samsung unveils significant new safety feature for Galaxy A-series phones

      16 July 2025

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025
    • Opinion

      A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

      15 July 2025

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » News » Cabinet opts for set-top box control

    Cabinet opts for set-top box control

    By Sapa Reporter5 March 2015
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Faith Muthambi
    Faith Muthambi

    Cabinet has approved the digital migration amendment policy which will see an access control system included in television set-top boxes, communications minister Faith Muthambi said on Thursday.

    “It will protect the government investment in set-top boxes so that the box cannot be used outside the boundaries of South Africa,” Muthambi told reporters following cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Wednesday.

    She said the boxes would be provided free to more than 5m households, who would be identified using the national means test.

    This decision would again delay the deadline for analogue switch-off, although migration to digital would start as planned on 17 June.

    “The mere fact that we are now subsidising all the 5m poor TV households, it is towards that realisation to say that you need everybody to make arrangements.

    “So as government, cabinet has given us the policy to say we need to start with the switch-on and then having assembled the team, if it is all systems go, we will be able to go to cabinet and announce the switch-off date.”

    The announcement spells the end of a long wrangle over whether to include a control system. Muthambi initially argued against control, but the ANC earlier this year made it clear that it disagreed.

    The Democratic Alliance said competing factions should now unite behind cabinet’s decision.

    “For too long, our ambitions to bridge the digital divide to deliver high-speed, ubiquitous wireless broadband to support e-government and fuel economic growth, for example, to all South Africans has been held hostage by powerful competing corporate and institutional agendas to control the broadcasting sector and unduly profit from the government’s subsidised set-top box programme,” said DA MP Marian Shinn.

    “These narrow interests must now be set aside for the national good and their energies and talents should be directed at fast-tracking a responsible, well-managed and transparent process to deliver subsidised set-top boxes to those who qualify so that the analogue spectrum can be released for digital communications requirements as soon as possible.”

    However, Shinn said that she is concerned that the cabinet statement on the subject refers to government providing “free” set-top boxes to 5m households. “The plan is for set-top boxes to be delivered to identified poor households and these will be subsidised on a sliding scale, depending on the total household income,” she said.

    “I await to see the full details of the revised policy to understand whether the 5m set-top boxes will indeed be free. If this change has been made, then the available finance, of which there is already a shortfall of R1,9bn, will be totally inadequate to the task.”

    The South African Communications Forum, an industry body that has supported set-top box control, welcomed cabinet’s decision. The body’s CEO, Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha, said she was encouraged that it appeared that government would provide free set-top boxes to poorer households. “This will help tremendously in moving the project forward.”

    Braithwaite-Kabosha said the forum believes that including a control system in set-top boxes will be “best for consumers” as it will “provide a better experience for viewers of free-to-air broadcasts”.

    In a statement, MultiChoice, which has been vehemently opposed to the mandatory inclusion of a control system based on encryption, said: “We welcome the clarification by … Muthambi at today’s post-cabinet media briefing that the control system in set-top boxes will be a security feature only, and will not include conditional access or encryption. We await publication of the final policy.”  — TechCentral, with Sapa



    Faith Muthambi Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha Marian Shinn
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleDidata named as Tour de France tech partner
    Next Article Independent said to stop Sapa payments

    Related Posts

    MultiChoice blasts Yunus Carrim over ‘capture’ allegations

    25 February 2020

    Minister withdraws telecoms amendment bill

    12 February 2019

    Withdrawal of telecoms bill to be welcomed

    12 February 2019
    Company News

    Vertiv to acquire custom rack solutions manufacturer

    18 July 2025

    SA businesses embrace gen AI – but strategy and skills are lagging

    17 July 2025

    Ransomware in South Africa: the human factor behind the growing crisis

    16 July 2025
    Opinion

    A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

    15 July 2025

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.