The road to digital migration in local television is paved with good intentions, vested interests, legal disputes and delays. In 2006, South Africa told the International Telecommunication Union it would switch from analogue to digital broadcasting by 2015 and the first digital migration policy
SABC board chairman Ben Ngubane and his deputy, Thami ka Plaatjie, have resigned, the public broadcaster reported on Monday morning. SABC radio news quoted communications spokesman Siya Qoza as saying President Jacob Zuma needed to decide whether to accept the resignations or
Amid calls by the Democratic Alliance for President Jacob Zuma to fire her, communications minister Dina Pule has hit back at a weekend newspaper report that said her alleged boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, potentially stood to gain from a political instruction she gave in 2012. The Sunday Times
Communications minister Dina Pule’s instruction in May 2012 that state-owned broadcasting signal distributor Sentech be the manager of the control system for digital terrestrial television may have indirectly benefited her alleged boyfriend
The SABC has been left red-faced over the loss of its planned 24-hour news channel on DStv after the well-connected Gupta family seized the gap. Few at the SABC appear to have been aware that the Gupta channel was even in the offing, although the broadcaster must have been in regular contact
Communications minister Dina Pule said on Monday that she has withdrawn her application for leave to appeal against a high court judgment that found in favour of free-to-air broadcaster e.tv over who will manage the control system for digital terrestrial television. Speaking at
The influence of the powerful and politically well-connected Gupta family is set to grow this year with the addition to its media portfolio of a 24-hour news channel on the continent-wide DStv satellite platform, and a new prime-time slot on SABC. The owners of
Progress in reaching a solution to getting the migration to digital terrestrial television moving forward again may be in sight following a second meeting between the department of communications and free-to-air broadcasters, including e.tv. The department said in a statement
Lack of certainty around the encryption and access control mechanisms to be used for digital terrestrial television, along with how millions of set-top boxes will be subsidised for poorer households, looks set to throw South Africa even further off track
Tellumat, one of the companies hoping to build set-top boxes for digital terrestrial television, says if e.tv succeeds in its bid for free-to-air broadcasters to manage the control system for the boxes, this could lead to further delays in the already long-delayed migration away from analogue broadcasts
