All around the world, the migration to digital broadcast transmission technology has begun in anticipation of the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) framework deadline in 2015 when analogue transmissions will no longer be protected from harmful interference.

Television and radio signals are currently, for the most part in South Africa, broadcasted on an analogue platform which requires a large amount of bandwidth to transmit pictures and sounds.

Digital signals, on the other hand, require much less bandwidth and as a result nine times as much digital information can be carried in the same bandwidth which currently transmits analogue signal.

The benefit of migrating from analogue to Digital Television (DTV) is a brighter, sharper picture and much better sound quality, in addition to the advantage that it would free up much needed spectrum known as the "digital dividend".

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) published final Digital Terrestrial Television Regulations in 2009 which were subsequently withdrawn in late 2009 due to a legal challenge from free-to-air broadcaster e.tv. Although ICASA published final revised Digital Migration Regulations in February 2010, the delay in publishing these regulations has affected the commercial launch date of DTV which has been delayed further due to the lack of availability of set-top boxes required to receive new digital signals.

In May of this year the Department of Communications (DOC) made the unexpected announcement that it was reviewing the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard, adopted for the migration of DTV in DOC's Digital Migration Policy in 2008. The announcement led to the dismay of South African broadcasters who have already spent a substantial amount of money preparing for the migration in accordance with DVB and the upgraded version of DVB-T2.

The DoC is currently considering the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB-T) standard implemented in Brazil. It is unclear what the rationale for considering a new DTV standard such as ISDB-T is. The ISDB-T has to date not been widely implemented globally in comparison to the DVB standard.

What is equally disconcerting is the extent to which Brazil is lobbying for South Africa to adopt the ISDB-T standard. If the DOC elects to adopt the ISDB-T standard, broadcasters may elect to apply to the High Courts to review the administrative decision of the DOC based on the legitimate expectation created by the DOC in initially adopting the DVB standard.

The implication of these numerous delays and controversies is that analogue broadcasts will in all likelihood only terminate in 2014, some three years after the date initially envisaged by the DOC in its Digital Migration Policy.

Written by: Tayyibah Suliman, Associate in the TMT Practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr business law firm