South African Industry Favors DVB-T

May 6, 2010

Exciting times in South Africa! No, not the upcoming World Cup in June, but the fact that the government is suddenly reviewing its 2006 decision to adopt DVB-T as its national digital terrestrial television standard. In 2006 South Africa signed the ITU RRC’06 agreement, confirming the decision to use DVB-T. Now, however, this decision doesn’t seem so clear.

Last week, DVB Chairman Phil Laven and international DVB consultant John Bigeni presented the strong case for DVB-T and DVB-T2 at a SADC (Southern African Development Community) meeting in Lesotho on April 27 and a symposium in Johannesburg on April 29. All the industry players in both meetings showed strong support for DVB-T, but the final decision will be made by the Department of Communications (DOC).

Further articles on this story can be found here:

May 6: Altech’s Venter slams digital TV rethink (Techcentral)

May 5: Digital distress (Techcentral)

May 3: Digital TV misstep could cost SA (ITWeb)

Apr 28: Mohlala seeks to calm waters (Techcentral)

Apr 26: Row looming over digital TV standards (Techcentral)