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South Africa’s state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is warning that 4.4 million households may lose access to its services if the country proceeds with its analogue switch-off deadline on March 31.
SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli cautioned that this would result in a significant loss of revenue for the broadcaster. “There are 4.4 million households that are not part of any satellite platform that have not received their set-top boxes,” Chabeli said. “If the switch-off does go ahead on 31 March, we are in a situation where the SABC will lose 27% of its audience, which immediately translates into revenue losses.”
The deadline for the country’s broadcasters to stop using analogue broadcasting frequencies is being challenged in the Gauteng High Court by eMedia, which argues that many households are not yet ready for the switch.
eMedia executive director Antonio Lee warned that if the government proceeds with the switch-off, it could impact 13.9 million people who access television exclusively through analogue broadcasting. “This is about an ongoing and collective inability to make sure that the poor and indigent have access to television,” Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird said.
The government is rolling out set-top boxes (STBs) to solve the problem of transitioning to digital broadcast signals while still accommodating those who cannot afford to access digital TV. However, Lee says that half a million households have not received these STBs. “Government cannot even roll out to those who have registered to receive set-top boxes,” Lee said. “Crucially, as things stand, around 450,000 households — over 1.5 million — people have registered for but not received STBs.”
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies told Parliament that many of those still awaiting STBs had incomplete addresses and had changed phone numbers, requiring that they be tracked down again.
The analogue switch-off deadline has been delayed several times in the past, with eMedia successfully challenging an earlier deadline in court in 2022. The country’s journey to ditching analogue in favour of digital broadcasting has been in the works for roughly two decades but has been riddled with delays.
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