THE government and business are on track to reaching full digital migration by November 2011, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda said, according to a report ontimeslive.co.za.
Speaking after addressing a set-top-box (digital decoders) manufacturing summit in Midrand, Nyanda said: "We are not running behind, we are on track. For the man on the street it means they will have access to more television channels."
Nyanda said the aim of the summit was to set guidelines for the manufacturing of the decoders so that all South Africans would have access to digital television broadcasting by 2011, when the current analogue transmitters would be switched off.
These criteria included promoting black economic empowerment and enabling smaller companies to reap financial gains.
The department's director general Mamodupi Mohlala said the government had allocated R5 million to subsidise decoders for poor households.
It would contribute 70 percent of the around R700 a decoder would cost. Currently between six and seven percent of the population already used the digital technology.
Click here to read the full report, posted on timeslive.co.za.
