South African broadcasters M-Net and e.tv can breathe a sigh of relief as cabinet has (finally) decided to endorse the European standard for digital terrestrial television, DVB-T2 (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial 2).
M-Net and e.tv have been running DVB-T2 trials for several months already, while simultaneously continuing their original trials of the first generation of this standard, DVB-T.
Cabinet’s endorsement follows a decision taken in November 2010 by a SADC (Southern African Development Community (SADC) task team to adopt DVB-T2 in the region.
South Africa’s digital migration process, already much delayed by the long time it took Cabinet to approve the country’s Digital Migration Strategy, was further delayed in 2010 by the surprise decision of former Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda, to review DVB-T (approved by Cabinet in 2006) in favour of the little used Japanese standard – ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial).
Had Cabinet approved ISDB-T instead of DVB-T, the huge investments made by broadcasters, set top box manufacturers and other industry stakeholders in testing DVB-T and DVB-T2 would have gone down the drain. (Source: TechCentral)
