Communications Minister Yunus Carrim has called for consensus on the drawn-out debate over the control systems of the set-top boxes (STBs) needed for South Africa’s digital migration.

With South Africa’s transition from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) five-and-a-half-years behind schedule, the department was “tired of negotiating” and hoped an accord among stakeholders would be reached soon.

“We agree [the DoC] made mistakes [in the roll-out of the project] but now we are ready to move on,” Carrim said.

He said a “balance”, in the heated – and ongoing – debate that had halted the DTT project, had been found when Cabinet opted for the nonmandatory use of a control system in the STBs not subsidised by government.

Broadcasters not wanting to make use of the control system would be unaffected by the existence of the control system in the STBs or by the use of the system by other broadcasters, but different forms of engagement continued with different parties opposing the decision.

“Some people supported the control system . . . others did not,” Carrim noted, adding that there were some stakeholders that were only concerned about profits.

The STB control system “discussion space” would remain open until an inclusive decision was made, but Carrim said there seemed to be “some sense” that things could not continue as they had.

The country had suffered several migration delays since a 2006 agreement with the International Telecommunications Union to migrate from an analogue to a digital signal by the middle of 2015.

One of the major stumbling blocks was the dispute about whether the STBs should have control or not.

The South African Communications Forum previously told Engineering News that delays in South Africa’s transition to digital television had cost the country’s STB manufacturing industry more than R50-million and had stressed that any more delays would lead to further losses.

Carrim pointed out that the scrapping of the control system would result in a further 36-week delay – and not the six-month delay initially thought – as the South African Bureau of Standards would need to rework the STB specifications (SANS 862) to exclude the STB control system.