Policy confusion behind SA’s failure to migrate to digital broadcasting: analyst

17 June 2016 - 18:23 By Ernest Mabuza

Policy confusion and inconsistency were at the heart of the government’s failure to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting. This is the view of media commentator Arthur Goldstuck‚ a year after South Africa failed to meet the target agreed with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to migrate to digital broadcasting.The Department of Communications gazetted the broadcasting digital migration policy in 2008 to meet the initial deadline of 2011. This deadline was extended until June 17 2015‚ which the government also failed to meet.The delays were occasioned by the dispute between the minister of communications and industry.The reason for changing to digital technology is to free up signal space for other purposes. South Africa co-ordinates its use of the signal spectrum with other countries to ensure there is no interference between broadcasting signals.Goldstuck said the consequences for the country for its failure to move to digital broadcasting were more to do with the image of the country than anything else.“The main area where signals are protected are border areas‚” he said. “We are sending a signal to the world that we are not able to manage something like digital migration. We are five years behind the original target of 2011.”The ITU is an agency of the United Nations that allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits and also develops the technical standards that ensure networks and technologies seamlessly interconnect.In May‚ the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside the decision by Communications Minister Faith Muthambi to amend the migration policy to one where set top boxes should not be encrypted.Barring an appeal to the Constitutional Court‚ the minister must now ensure that set top boxes that are supplied should be encrypted.Goldstuck said government placed obstacles in the way of migrating to digital broadcasting.He said government included the policy of the transformation of the sector together with the migration to digital broadcasting.“You cannot transform the sector and set a target for digital migration in the same breath.”Goldstuck said the previous minister‚ Yunus Carrim‚ had determined that encryption of the set top boxes would be the best route to take.“The current minister did an about-turn. Muthambi’s decision was a poor one.”Goldstuck said there was no sense of urgency from the government. “The only minister who thought this was important was Yunus Carrim. He was clearly effective. In the nine months in office‚ he made more progress than all the communications ministers put together.”..

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