Government has committed to provide financial assistance to state owned communications infrastructure company Sentech to cover some of the cost of dual illumination which has placed a strain on its finances.The departments of communications‚ telecommunications and postal services and the Treasury have been in discussions over the funding and Sentech chairman Magatho Mello said on Thursday that they had promised to find about R100m in the current financial year.This means Sentech still has to find an additional funds to cover the cost of the project which poses a risk to its business.Dual illumination is the provision of both analogue and digital broadcasting services during the period of transition from the one to the other. During this transition period‚ which Sentech anticipates will end in 2018/18‚ it will run both networks simultaneously at a cost of about R140m a year. The main cost was leasing satellite space.Government is currently distributing set-top boxes to television owners to enable them to convert the analogue signals to digital but the process has encountered significant delays."Due to the delays in launching digital terrestrial television many households have acquired satellite services to access digital services to access digital channels‚" CEO Mamli Booi told MPs in a briefing on the company to Parliament's telecommunications and postal services committee."The terrestrial sector has subsequently declined in size although once launched digital terrestrial television is expected to grow quickly."Currently analogue TV signal distribution is the major contributor of revenue for Sentech and its future sustainability is intricately linked to the mass uptake of the free-to-air digital terrestrial television service. Further growth of digital terrestrial television would be based on the anticipated licensing of additional broadcasters.Mr Booi said that as part of the digital migration process Sentech had developed a tariff model that combined aspects of both analogue and digital tariffs. The new tariff would be implemented in the 2016/17 financial year.He anticipated remaining in the black over the next three years. It has budgeted to spend R502m on infrastructure in the 2016/17 financial year...