Warning of TV blackout for millions in South Africa

Media industry lobby groups Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition have accused communications minister Solly Malatsi of “lowballing” estimates of the number of South Africans who will be adversely affected by government’s planned termination of analogue broadcasts at the end of this month.

The accusation was made by legal counsel for MMA and SOS in joint representations to the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday. The two media industry bodies are the second and third respondents, respectively, in a case brought to the court by broadcaster e.tv, which claims that the 31 March analogue switch-off (ASO) deadline is premature and was made without consulting media industry stakeholders.

Speaking on behalf of MMA and SOS, advocate Nick Ferreira told the court:

“The minister’s lowball figure is some 391 513 households, which must be multiplied by 3.2 individuals – according to Statistics South Africa – which gives you roughly 1.3 million people. That is the lowest possible figure of people who will be plunged into television blackout.

“Sentech actually told parliament that this will be about 100 000 more in its presentation to parliament a few days ago.”

Ferreira said the presentation by Sentech provided further cause for alarm considering that the state-owned company has reduced the scope of its set-top-box installation to only four of South Africa’s nine provinces, increasing the likelihood that a higher number of households will be completely cut off from television following the ASO.

Read: Court battle over analogue TV switch-off begins

According to Ferreira, Sentech “erroneously” thinks that ASO has already taken place in these provinces when, in fact, it is only the SABC that has turned off its analogue transmitters. The SABC has switched off analogue broadcasts in the Free State, the Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. But other free-to-air broadcasters, including e.tv, still use analogue signals to reach audiences in these regions.

“E.tv continues to broadcast in analogue in these five provinces, but Sentech and the minister are trying to get to a date so they are rushing. They are putting all of their resources into four provinces and leaving the other five out of account entirely,” said Ferreira.

MMA and SOS argued that the exclusion of provinces from the set-top box roll-out – which is flawed in itself – is going to exacerbate the harm caused by the premature execution of analogue switch-off because even if progress is made in set-top-box distribution, it will invariably exclude a large number of people in the five provinces being ignored.

“We have no idea how long those 1.3 million people will lose access to television for because the minister has no idea or has not told us how long this blackout will last,” said Ferreira.

Ferreira also argued, just as first respondent e.tv did in its founding affidavit, that a premature switch-off of analogue broadcasts will have a devastating effect on the operations of free-to-air broadcasters including the SABC, e.tv and six other community TV stations.

This may spell out an existential crisis for many of these broadcasters, who will not be able to reach those segments of their audience who do not have the ability to receive digital broadcasts, leading to decreases in advertising spend and ultimately affecting the bottom line.

In their responding affidavit to the court, MMA and SOS said if analogue transmissions are switched off before a sufficient number of audience members have managed to migrate to digital, then free-to-air television audiences will drop from 50% of the population to around only 26%.

‘Concerned’

Other than threatening profitability, Ferreira said the potential loss of entire TV stations puts the plurality of voices in South Africa’s television broadcasting landscape under threat.

“MMA and SOS are concerned about a rich and vibrant ecosystem in which a range of different views and a variety of sources of different information can be received by the public,” Ferreira said.

Read: Digital TV project in peril as installers warn of set-top box fiasco

Legal counsel for Malatsi was meant to present to the court following the presentations by e.tv, MMA and SOS earlier in the day. But the minister’s team told the court they need more time to prepare their arguments. Proceedings will begin with a presentation by Malatsi’s legal team at 10am on Wednesday.  – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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