South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA has issued a draft set of digital terrestrial broadcasting regulations. ICASA has set out the frequencies which will be allocated for public broadcasting, commercial free-to-view, subscription and community broadcasting.The new rules, when implemented, will replace older legislation in place for more than 10 years although largely ignored because analogue transmissions have continued.“With the analogue switch-off process ongoing, the regulatory focus shifts from enabling the migration process to the regulatory management of a fully digital broadcasting environment,” the regulator said.“The authority, having considered submissions received during the consultation process, notes that stakeholders in general do not support the concept of multiplex sharing. The prevailing view is that each broadcaster should be allocated its own dedicated multiplex, as sharing impacts the geographical reach of services and imposes cost burdens due to divergent coverage requirements,” ICASA continued. “The regulation proposes that Muxes (Multiplexes) 1 and 5 be allocated entirely to the public broadcaster, the SABC, to fulfil its public broadcasting mandate and enable HD broadcasting expansion. This allocation addresses the current capacity allocation under Mux 1, which poses significant constraints to the public broadcaster’s ability to transition to high-definition broadcasting.”ICASA says that South Africa must utilise the now-ageing DVB-T2 broadcasting standard, and wants seven multiplexes to be licensed, including “innovation” bands that can be used for experimentation. Under the draft rules, spectrum allocated to broadcasters will be withdrawn after 36 months if it’s not being used.
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