Officials from the DVB have made an emergency dash to South Africa to persuade the authorities to maintain their 2006 commitment to adopt the DVB-T terrestrial standard.
The South African commitment to DVB stems from the ITU RRC’06 agreement, and broadcasters are already running tests as part of the country’s protracted digital switchover process, but in recent weeks there have been suggestions that the Japanese ISDB system may be used instead.
Last week, DVB Chairman Phil Laven and international DVB consultant John Bigeni presented the case for DVB-T and DVB-T2 at a SADC (Southern African Development Community) meeting in Lesotho on April 27 and a symposium in Johannesburg on April 29.
Discussions have also been held with Brazil, which uses its own version of the ISDB standard.
The final decision will be made by the Department of Communications (DOC).
