Analogue broadcasts in South Africa will be switched off on December 31, 2013, according to local news reports. However, some sources suggest a later switch-over date.
Dina Pule, minister of communications, said that Sentech, the state-owned signal distributor responsible for rolling out the digital broadcasting network around the country, has covered 61% of the population.
“This makes South Africa the first country to implement full public broadcasting services on the DVB-T2 standard,” claimed the Department of Commnications (DoC) in a press statement.
As at March 31, 2012, Sentech had achieved 60% digital signal coverage of the population. In effect, 96% of Gauteng, 92% of North West, 73% of Western Cape, 33% of Mpumalanga, 31% of Eastern Cape, 46% of Free State, 30% of the Northern Cape, 45% of Kwazulu Natal and 59% of the Limpopo population are now covered.
In a related development, the DoC has requested information from local manufacturing companies who may be interested in producing set-top boxes (STBs), which many South Africans will need in order to watch television when the country switches to digital terrestrial television broadcasting. Potential manufacturers have until April 30 to respond.
Communications Minister Dina Pule said that the DoC aimed to use its digital migration policy to facilitate the entry of 1,000 small, medium and micro enterprises into the electronics manufacturing sector and enable them to compete or cooperate with existing, larger electronics manufacturers. The local manufacture of STBs is the second phase of a three-phase project, which included the simultaneous rollout of the physical broadcasting network equipment and the distribution of STBs.
