To ensure that set-top-box (STB) subsidies are adequately distributed to qualifying needy persons who own televisions, the Universal Services and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA) on Tuesday announced that it had extended the public comment deadline on its proposed qualifying criteria, issued in October, to February 28, 2015.

USAASA had been mandated through the Electronic Communications Act to manage the disbursement of STB subsidies to poor TV-owning households located throughout the country to enable them to actively participate in South Africa’s migration from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television.

To ensure that these subsidies were adequately distributed, USAASA was required to develop the criteria by which TV-owning households would qualify for subsidies and establish infrastructure, systems and processes for the management of the distribution of subsidies to qualifying households, as well as the acquisition of STBs by these households.

USAASA said in a statement that it would also embark on a national roadshow between January 22 and February 28 next year to facilitate further engagement with interested parties on the STB subsidy project.

Through this process, USAASA would meet with various stakeholders, including, but not limited to, traditional leadership, local government and nongovernmental organisations.

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi, who has the responsibility of driving the digital migration process, in November announced that a digital switch-on date would be set in due course and called for South Africa to “watch this space”.

South Africa currently had until June 2015 to switch to digital before the International Telecommunications Union lifted the protection of the analogue terrestrial television signals, leaving frequencies open to disruption.

However, despite promises to accelerate the project, many issues remained, including that of conditional access on STBs – a decision that was already taken by Cabinet when former Communications Minister Yunus Carrim announced the nonmandatory use of a control system in the STBs not subsidised by government.