Major problem with TV signals in South Africa

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi says the government cannot afford to maintain both analogue and digital TV signals.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika about the legal challenge to delay the analogue TV switch-off deadline of 31 March 2025, Malatsi said running the signals simultaneously has cost more than R1.2 billion since 2014.

“We took the decision taking into consideration two crucial factors. One is this project has been long-standing for some time, dating as far back as 2014,” the minister said.

“In addition to that, there is a financial cost to maintaining both analogue and digital signals, which in technical terms is called dual illumination.”

“The cost of that dual illumination since 2014 has been over R1.2 billion, and increasingly, the state does not have sufficient revenue to continue maintaining the signals,” he added.

Late last year, minister Malatsi secured cabinet’s approval to delay the analogue switch-off deadline from 31 December 2024 to 31 March 2025.

However, eMedia and other organisations, such as Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition, are challenging the new deadline in the Gauteng High Court.

They argue that if the proposal is allowed to proceed, many indigent households would be left without access to crucial information.

Presenting the minister’s case, Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane accused the E-tv owner of wanting to delay the deadline not to protect the interests of indigent households but rather to protect its commercial interests.

“E-tv is not necessarily litigating this case to protect the interests of the poor. It is litigating in its application to protect its own commercial interests,” he argued.

Prior to E-tv switching off some of its analogue transmitters, broadcasters and state signal distributor Sentech arranged to broadcast messages to TV sets informing them of the signal switch-off.

Tsatsawane explained that E-tv’s message informed viewers of the switch-off before advising them to buy an Openview decoder.

“It said: to continue enjoying your favourite TV shows and get many more entertaining channels, get an Openview decoder from a retailer near you,” he said.

The South African government has taxpayer-sponsored set-top boxes (STBs) that can receive digital TV signals so that indigent households can continue to access public TV once analogue signals are shut off.

“This is not the STB which is provided by the government. This is an STB which is provided by E-tv itself at a cost,” said Tsatsawane.

“When they did this, why did they not send a message to the poorest of the poor that they say they are fighting for in this application.”

“There’s absolutely no explanation for it and that is why we say it is about their own commercial interests more than the poorest of the poor,” he added.

He questioned why, if eMedia was genuinely concerned about the poorest of the poor, it didn’t say something like:

“If you are unable to procure this Openview decoder, you must urgently register and procure a state-sponsored STB.”

Dual illumination costs

While presenting before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies in November 2024, Malatsi’s department revealed that dual illumination had cost the state R1.23 billion over the past decade.

It added that no funding had been allocated for dual illumination in 2024/25, which could run up costs of between R90 million and R167 million.

“The department and USAASA requested National Treasury to approve a reprioritisation of R140 million from USAF funds to cover the dual illumination shortfall for 2024/25,” the department said in its presentation.

MyBroadband asked eMedia if it would consider contributing to these costs. It said it would not.

The broadcaster, a major advocate for extending the deadline, said the government has always been responsible for funding dual illumination, not the broadcasters.

The table below shows South Africa’s annual dual illumination spending between 2014/15 and 2023/24.