South Africa’s digital TV failure

eMedia CEO Khalik Sherrif has clarified the broadcaster’s stance on the analogue switch-off in South Africa, saying it is happy to do so provided certain conditions are met.

He also described digital terrestrial television (DTT) as having failed in South Africa and said the plan to re-instil DTT isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

In an interview with CapeTalk, Sherrif highlighted that there are still 4.3 million-odd South African households that rely on analogue TV signals.

“As a business, we understand that analogue must go someday. In fact, it must go as soon as it can,” said Sherrif

“Unfortunately, in South Africa, there are more than four million households that still receive analogue broadcasting.”

“Some of them will require state assistance. Some of them will probably end up digitally migrating themselves,” he added.

He acknowledged that eMedia doesn’t expect all 4.3 million households to be successfully migrated and that it anticipates there will be some stragglers.

Sheriff said eMedia would be happy to switch off its analogue signals if the government could reduce this figure to around one million households.

“Our condition is simply clear. When you move all these people across, and we’re happy to switch off. Then it is worth our while as a business that relies on that market,” he said.

“We are free-to-air. These are the people who loyally look at what we do. They are our customers. They are the people that make up our numbers.”

“We can’t ignore them. Nor can the state ignore them,”

He noted that eMedia had already started switching off sites on its own accord, primarily uneconomical sites with less than 5,000 households.

Sherrif said eMedia supports the analogue switch-off process, but not the deadline.

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) recently set a new deadline of 31 December 2024, which eMedia said is immature in a submission to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).

“By 31 December 2024, it is likely that more than four million households will still be reliant on analogue television to receive free-to-air channels,” it said in its submission to Icasa.

“The announcement of 31 December 2024 as the analogue switch-off date is premature as it will deny these millions access to television.”

Khalik Sherrif, eMedia CEO.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently appointed a new Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies — the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Solly Malatsi.

Sherrif highlighted several issues that he believes Malatsi must prioritise as the country’s new communications minister, including providing the 4.3 million households set to be left behind with set-top boxes (STBs).

STBs are required for a household to receive DTT transmissions. Without them, these households will be unable to watch any televised content once analogue signals are switched off.

Sherrif said Malatsi must also understand that DTT is a failed project in South Africa.

“DTT is a failed project in South Africa like it is in the rest of the world, and to re-instil DTT, the cost to the fiscus is so humungous that it isn’t worth the paper that it’s written on,” he said.

“There isn’t a return on investment in such a matter. The cost to get a DTT household in South Africa is close to R100 per annum, and the cost of an analogue household is less than R30.”

MyBroadband recently reported that Sentech had switched off eMedia’s DTT signals following a tip-off from a reader.

In a support message sent to the reader, Sentech said it switched off the service because E-tv had yet to agree on the DTT Master Transmission Agreement (MTA).

The reader added that eMedia’s support channels didn’t seem to understand the issue, simply advising that he rescan the channels on his TV.