Opinion | Ntshavheni has failed to consult sufficiently on analogue switch-off, by Karen Thorne
on going ahead with the switch-off of analogue television broadcasting at the end of March 2023, according to the outgoing communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, despite the very real threat it poses to free-to-air TV broadcasters. This is because there are simply not enough TV viewers on the digital terrestrial transmission platform to make it sustainable.
The constitutional count required the minister to engage with “affected parties” before determining the ASO date. This includes consulting with free-to-air broadcasters and civil society organisations such as the SoS campaign, Media Monitoring Africa and the SaveFreeTV coalition.
JSAG has been working on migrating broadcast transmissions to frequencies under the 694MHz range to free up the frequencies in the 700MHz and 800MHz ranges for mobile operators.The minister cites the 2015 International Telecommunication Union deadline to switch off all analogue TV broadcasting, which South Africa failed to do at the time.
While Ntshavheni likes to focus media attention on her obligation to roll out 1.5 million set top boxes to indigent households, she ignores the “missing middle”, including the vast majority of South Africans who earn over R3 500/month and who don’t qualify for subsidised decoders.
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