TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      E.tv in stunning victory over minister in digital TV fight

      28 June 2022

      It’s official: stage-6 load shedding is here

      28 June 2022

      Stage-6 load shedding highly likely later today

      28 June 2022

      Prosus sale plan sends Chinese tech stocks tumbling

      28 June 2022

      Takealot is ready for the Amazon onslaught: Bob van Dijk

      27 June 2022
    • World

      Ether holds its breath for the Merge

      28 June 2022

      Google Cloud customers will learn their Gmail carbon footprint

      28 June 2022

      The lights are going out for crypto’s laser-eyed grifters

      28 June 2022

      Crypto retakes $1-trillion

      27 June 2022

      Tencent slides on Prosus sale plan

      27 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»Digital TV deadlines slip and slip

    Digital TV deadlines slip and slip

    News By Editor29 July 2012
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Dina Pule

    In February, communications minister Dina Pule announced that the digital television switch-on was being moved from April to September.

    When a country switches from analogue television to digital, there are two important dates. The first is when digital television signals are launched and the second is when the analogue television signal is turned off for good. Dual illumination is the period between the two when both signals run simultaneously. In this period, all analogue television households must be converted to digital set-top boxes.

    What Pule’s announcement meant was that the government was not going to turn on the digital television signals before the date when the migration was meant to have been completed. To say that SA is behind schedule is an understatement.

    But now the Independent Com­muni­cations Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has changed the draft regulations for digital terrestrial television and is trying to introduce new players during the dual-illumination period. This will upset broadcasters such as M-Net, SABC and e.tv, which have to carry the costs of both analogue and digital transmissions during that period while doing marketing to convince their viewers to migrate to digital. The new entrants will have to pay only for a digital transmission and their content, and with no customers to migrate, they will not have to do any marketing.

    Rumblings
    This week, the broadcasters refused to comment on the regulations before they had responded to the regulator. But, from the rumblings behind the scenes, the regulator may be forced to hold public hearings on the draft regulations, which could be challenged legally.

    Industry insiders have long claimed that SA would miss the 2015 deadline to turn off the analogue signal. As a signatory to the International Telecommunication Union, it agreed to meet the global analogue switch-off date of June 2015. After that, analogue tele­vision signals will not be protected against interference.

    According to Icasa’s new draft regulations, the regulator seems to acknowledge this. “It is therefore important that Icasa amend its draft digital terrestrial television regulations to meet any future contingencies, including the possibility that analogue switch-off may not take place in 2015 as envisaged in the ministerial policy.”

    An industry insider said: “There is going to be another round of fighting over these regulations. A lot of people have threatened legal action — are they bluffing or are they serious? Who knows?”

    Another said the new regulations could lead to additional delays in the process and it appeared that the regulator did not want to hold public hearings on the new draft regulations, although it would probably be forced into it.  — (c) 2012 Mail & Guardian

    • Visit the Mail & Guardian Online, the smart news source
    Dina Pule e.tv Icasa M-Net SABC
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleNo respite for battered Telkom
    Next Article MultiChoice entrenches its position

    Related Posts

    E.tv in stunning victory over minister in digital TV fight

    28 June 2022

    It’s official: stage-6 load shedding is here

    28 June 2022

    Stage-6 load shedding highly likely later today

    28 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    How your business can help hybrid workers effectively

    28 June 2022

    Hands off our satellite spectrum!

    27 June 2022

    Watch | Telviva One: adapting to the requirements of business

    24 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

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

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

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