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Johannesburg - The process in terms of which South Africa's television signals will be converted from analogue to digital is under serious pressure.
On Thursday the Department of Communications held a summit on the manufacturing strategy for the decoders.
There are about nine million households in South Africa watching television. Most of them will have to buy a special decoder to continue watching after November 2011, when the analogue signal is expected to be switched off.
The intention is to have the decoders manufactured locally, thus creating more jobs and expanding the industry.
On Thursday it was clear that some of the steps for the migration process needed urgent finalisation to meet the various deadlines.
According to Dina Pule, Deputy Minister of Communications, the digital signal, which has already been switched on, should have covered 50% of the population by the end of the 2008-2009 financial year, but it is currently covering only 33%.
By 2010 80% of the population should have coverage and by 2011 the entire population.
About five million poor households' decoders will be subsidised.
These families are expected to receive coupons to acquire certain decoders at a discount, but only a limited amount of manufacturers will be considered for this market.
These manufacturers' black empowerment statuses will have to be satisfactory and they will need to have the appropriate production capacity.
The decoder that is being planned has a number of additional characteristics, such as interactivity, and is expected to cost a consumer about R700.
DStv viewers already receive a digital signal for their pay-television channels, but without one of the new decoders they will be able to receive only some of the other channels.
- Sake24.com
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