Digital TV here in a year

South African consumers may be able to begin buying set-top boxes for digital terrestrial television in little over a year from now, but the full switchover from analogue could take far longer.

By Duncan McLeod: @mcleodd

29 Mar 2011

Richard Waghorn, CTO at the SABC, says a number of parallel but interlinked processes are now being finalised before manufacturers can begin building the set-top boxes that South Africans will need to receive digital broadcasts. Government has set a deadline of December 2013 for the process to be completed.

According to Waghorn, the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) is revising the set-top box standard after Government decided to adopt the second generation of the European standard for digital terrestrial television. The country had previously decided to adopt the first generation of the standard. Among other things, the SABS must decide whether the country will use standard-definition (SD) or high-definition (HD) profiles for the set-top boxes.

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Duncan McLeod

About Duncan McLeod: @mcleodd

Award-wining Duncan McLeod is the founder and editor of TechCentral (wwwTechCentral.co.za, @TechCentral]]), South Africa's latest technology news site offering breaking news, in-depth analysis and opinion that launched in September 2009. Before that, he was associate editor at the Financial Mail/FM. Contact Duncan on email duncan at techcentral dot co dot za and follow him on Twitter at @mcleodd.