Initiated two decades ago, DTT was meant to serve as the primary broadcasting medium for free-to-air television services, including those of the SABC and e.tv as well as local and regional community TV stations. MultiChoice Group also had plans to launch GOtv, its subscription terrestrial offering that is offers elsewhere in Africa, in South Africa.
The idea was to shift South African broadcasters away from older analogue technology to digital transmissions, which are cheaper to operate and make more efficient use of scarce radio frequency spectrum, allowing broadcasters to offer more channels at higher definition.
The move would also free up valuable "digital dividend" spectrum that mobile operators could then use to provide broadband services, a milestone achieved in August 2023 when broadcasters moved their signals to frequencies below 694MHz.
But with the deadline for broadcasters to switch off their analogue transmissions less than a month away, some 4.5 million South Africans are at risk of being cut off from access to television because they do not have the set-top boxes required to decode digital signals.
Karen Thorne, station manager at community broadcaster Cape Town TV, described these households as the "missing middle". These are homes that don't necessarily fit government's definition of "indigent" but also can't afford to buy a smart TV or set-top box to access digital broadcasts.