Treasury funds digital broadcasting network upgrade

The Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, confirmed that funds will made available to digitise the South African television broadcasting signal distribution network according to signal provider Sentech.
Sentech requested capital from the government to upgrade and digitise the existing analogue network which has been in use since 1976 and is now proving very costly to maintain.
Another key reason for the upgrade is to enable the country to broadcast the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup tournament to the rest of the world.
Sentech are also reported to be very interested in the possibilities of the DVB-H standard for broadcasting TV to mobile handsets.
South Africa has around 7 million TV households according to Johan Raath, the spokesman for Sentech, who released the funding information.
Source: Engineering news za
Item added: 15th November 2005