The migration from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT), which was scheduled to start in April, has been delayed until the third quarter of 2012, Communications Minister Dina Pule said on Tuesday.

Confirmation of a new date to switch off the analogue, which was scheduled for December 2013, was not yet received. Originally, this was to occur during November 2011, however the project has met with a number of delays since inception.

Under an agreement with the International Telecommunications Union, South Africa has until 2015 to complete the migration, after which it will no longer have exclusive use of the frequencies.

Pule said that since taking the reins three months ago, the Department of Communications (DoC) team had been reviewing policies, systems and regulations.

Calls for tenders for the manufacture of electronic equipment such as digital antennas and set-top boxes (STB), which were scheduled to start this month, would only be published by March.

The finalisation of the national DTT standard by the South African Bureau of Standards was expected to be gazetted next month, while the STB Manufacturing Sector Development Strategy and the Scheme for Ownership Support Rollout Framework, which was initially scheduled for submission in August last year, would be presented to Cabinet in February.

Further, the DoC was expected to gazette the finalisation of amendments to the 2008 Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy next month.

The Minister added that it was expected that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s DTT regulations, which would enable broadcasters to apply for new digital channels, were currently out for public comment and was expected to be finalised by the end of March 2012.

Meanwhile, the DoC said State-owned Sentech was making significant progress in the rollout of DVB-T2 transmitters and anticipated that, by March, the digital signal would cover more than 60% of the population.

Sentech was currently rearranging its rollout plan for DTT to ensure each province was covered in its entirety.

Pule took over from Roy Padayachie as Minister after a Cabinet reshuffle late last year.