South Africa’s DSO draws near
August 2, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Sentech, South Africa’s state-backed TV transmission business, has started its move towards an all-digital broadcasting model. At midnight on July 31st Sentech switched some frequencies to all-digital transmission. The switchover is about 13 years late.
The government’s communications minister had set the end of July as the end-date for analogue transmissions across the country. Broadcasters had to vacate frequencies above 694MHz.
However, there are still plenty of analogue transmissions still broadcasting. All remaining analogue broadcasting services – as utilised by e.tv and the SABC – must temporarily be accommodated in lower frequencies. This means South Africans still reliant on analogue TV broadcasts will now need to retune their TVs to continue receiving some channels.
The South African government says that all these remaining analogue transmissions must end by the end of December 2024.
The initial deadline, and much missed, was originally set as December 31st 2010.