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Cape Town - The switch over from analogue television broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) will start in 2008 with the world cup host cities being the first to benefit from the new technology.
This is according to Sentech CEO, Dr Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, who explained at a briefing on Thursday that the state-owned signal broadcaster has already started preparing its infrastructure for the rollout of the next generation of broadcasting technology.
She revealed that the organisation had already deployed its first site, in Nelspruit, and would have 58% of the SA population covered by the time the service goes live in 2008.
The DTT will provide viewers with a better quality of video and audio than is possible today and will allow for the introduction of interactive services, similar to those available on DSTV today, she added.
She explained that moving television stations across to the new broadcasting technology will also create capacity for new stations to be launched as well as for broadcasters to start delivering their content in high definition.
However, she speculates that high-definition content will largely be restricted to satellite broadcasters until the percentage of TV sets in South Africa capable of displaying high-definition signals has reached a high enough number.
Set top box will have to be bought
All of the 8 million households that currently have TV sets will have to buy a set top box but she says that for those people in the lower income brackets it will be necessary for government to subsidise the cost, but she was unable to give any indication of how much the devices would cost.
She did say that Sentech was in the process of looking at manufacturing partners and that in all likelihood two companies would be appointed to ensure that costs were kept to a minimum.
While the cost of deploying this technology is not insignificant, at least R200m having being budgeted for the project over the next three years, Sentech has found itself in a situation where it needs to replace its old equipment anyway.
"Our analogue broadcasting technology is reaching the end of its lifespan and with government having committed to deploying DTT before the 2010 world cup the time is right for us to start migrating our infrastructure," Mokone-Matabane said.
The current analogue broadcast signal will remain in service for a number of years but she says that the African nations have committed to moving over DTT by 2015 at which time the analogue signal should be discontinued.