Roll-out of digital TV one step closer

In a move aimed at speeding up the roll-out of digital television in South Africa, Cabinet has okayed the use of a control system in digital television set-top boxes (STBs).

Briefing the media in Pretoria on Thursday, following the executives fortnightly meeting the day before, Communications Minister Yunus Carrim said the use of a control system was not mandatory.

We are trying to secure a consensual approach.... Cabinet has appealed to all the parties in the industry to move on, to work together with the government, to work among themselves in the national interest to roll-out digital migration as fast as possible.

He noted that the government had brought in mediators to resolve the issue, as it was regrettable that the roll-out was running some five years behind schedule.

Cabinet had approved changes to the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy, which related mainly to whether the STBs, also known as decoders, should have a control system.

Although it was not mandatory, Cabinet noted in a statement, the STBs will, however, have a control system to protect governments investment in the subsidised STB market and the local electronics industry....

Carrim said it would be untenable to allow the market to be flooded by cheap, sub-standard imports, as had happened in other developing countries, and local production would stimulate job creation.

He said Cabinets decision had also been influenced by certain factors:

ensuring that the government subsidy was used productively;

protecting the interests of the SABC;

reducing the extent of monopolisation, and encouraging competition by creating space for new players in the pay television market without unfairly benefiting from the government subsidy; and reducing the prospects of legal action by broadcasters and entrepreneurs that would hold up the migration process.

The SABC is a public broadcaster and it should be given space to grow, Carrim said.

Cabinet said that, to avoid subscription broadcasters unfairly benefiting from the STB control system, the governments investment in the system would be recovered from subscription broadcasters which chose to use it.

Debate about whether conditional access should be built into digital television STBs has been holding up the roll-out of digital television in South Africa.

The government aims to complete the so-called migration to digital television by mid-2015.

Carrim said he would discuss further details at a media briefing on Friday.

www.moneyweb.co.za

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