In the latest round of hiccups to affect South Africa’s hugely delayed digital migration project, which will see the country’s analogue broadcasting signal eventually converted to digital terrestrial television (DTT), the Department of Communications (DoC) is appealing the recent court decision on the control of conditional access in the DTT set-top boxes (STBs).
Last month the court granted free-to-air commercial broadcaster e.tv and public service broadcaster SABC control of the conditional access encryption system in the state sponsored STBs. In May e.tv took Minister of Communications Dina Pule to court when she announced that the STB control of conditional access would reside with parastatal signal distributor Sentech and not with e.tv and the SABC, as expected by the two broadcasters.
The DoC’s decision to appeal the court ruling was taken after considering the implications of the judgment on other broadcasters, particularly potential broadcasters, in line with the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy.
The DoC is also consulting with existing broadcasters and regulator Icasa on the role of each party in the implementation of the conditional access as per the court judgment.
Latest news from TechCentral is that e.tv will fight the DoC’s appeal.
Meanwhile, Minister Pule last year announced that the commercial launch of DTT would roll out in the fourth quarter of 2012. The launch has yet to transpire.
