By ZWELI MOKGATA

PUBLIC broadcasters announced the launch of their digital signal yesterday, but viewers will have to wait some months before they can tune in.

Yesterday broadcasters including the SABC, e.tv and M-Net began technical trials of digital terrestrial television (DTT).

The new technology was a pre- requisite for South Africa being awarded the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup hosting rights.

An estimated eight new video channels can be provided on one analogue channel allowing for other interactive services.

Department of Communications spokesperson Albi Modise said: “We just oversaw the switch-over, but the trial will be largely run by broadcasters themselves. They have a number of households who they will make the signal available to.”

Vasilli Vass, e.tv’s spokesperson, said yesterday: “SABC is leading the trial which kicked off today; e.tv is working closely with the SABC and M-Net on the trial.”

The operators have been awarded a trial licence by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) which will last for nine months.

The SABC and e.tv free-to-air signals will be distributed by Sentech to 3250 viewers, while M-Net’s pay-TV signal will be provided by Orbicom to 3000 subscribers.

According to Karen Willenberg, M-Net’s regulatory and legal affairs director, the process would be a complex one, but would benefit the eventual commercial offering to the general public.

Willenberg also sits on the Digital Dzonga Advisory Council, which was appointed by the minister of communications to oversee the process of migrating South Africa’s analogue broadcasting signal to the new technology.

She said: “There are several issues to resolve – distributors need to ensure that transmitters are functioning properly, frequencies need to be verified, equipment needs to be installed and content needs to be compressed and transmitted.

“Icasa must finalise the licensing framework for DTT, and the SABS (South African Bureau of Standards) needs to set standards for the set-top boxes (STB),” Willenberg said.

STBs (for free-to-air channels) and decoders (for pay television) are an issue of contention, according to Willenberg: “One of the key drivers across the world for a successful migration is an affordable STB.”

There are eight million TV households in the country, and according to Willenberg 4.4million would not be able to afford an STB at any price. The government has offered to subsidise five million STBs but the host of features it has mandated could still make the device out of reach to most households.

The proposed device with features including interactive e-government services – for paying fines and accessing other government services such as Home Affairs – could set the price at R700.

With the government subsidy, those who can prove that they are the poorest of the poor will still have to pay R250.

“Here the government is mandating the Rolls Royce of boxes, but they need to give people the choice for a cheaper box if they want it,” Willenberg said.