General Information

Introduction of Digital Broadcasting Services

Pilot Transmissions

 

 

General Information:

Population Details:

Total Population

40.58 million

Urban population

54%

Percentage of population earning above R2500.00 per month

25%

Percentage of population earnings R500.00 or less per month

25%

Percentage of population with running water or a Tap in the house

45%

Percentage of population using electricity for lighting `

58%

Source: Statistics South Africa, Census ’96 (www.statssa.gov.za)

 

 Estimated number of Radio and TV Sets in SA (2001-07-11)

 

Source

Radio

Television

World Radio TV Handbook

WRTH Volume 55-2001

7,5 million

3,485,000

Commonwealth Broadcasters Directory 2000

7,5 million

5.1 million

SABA Handbook 2000

10 million

5.4 million

 

 

Number of Radio and TV Transmitters In SA (2001-07-11)

 

Source

Radio

Television

Sentech Planning Data Base

715 FM

555 UHF and VHF

 

12 MW

 

 

15 SW

 

 

 Broadcast Infrastructure and Services

There are more than 204 broadcast transmitter sites in South Africa.  Extensive national radio and television network are in operation.  The FM services are in stereo and carry RDS.

Most of the television households rely on analogue terrestrial broadcasting for their service. Except for two television services all the analogue terrestrial broadcasts are free to air.  Two of the analogue television services are encrypted with the Irdeto system and serve approximately 800 000 households.

A DTH digital satellite pay television platform known as DSTV (Digital Satellite Television) is operational with more than 600 000 set top boxes in the field.  The new Vivid digital satellite television platform has approximately 20 000 set top boxes in the field.

There is no cable TV is SA.

Introduction of Digital Broadcasting Services

The policy and regulatory frameworks for digital broadcasting in South Africa still need to be defined. The South African minister of Communications in March 2001 established the Digital Broadcasting Advisory Body (DBAB). The DBAB is to advise government on high level policy in the sector and to provide input to other advisory processes and bodies such as Thabo Mbeki's presidential taskforces on technology and communications.

DBAB is expected to recommend the systems and standards to be used for Digital Broadcasting in South Africa as well as the roll-out strategies, licensing categories and processes. 

In this context the issues around the possible number of multiplexes to be licensed, the licensing frameworks and categories as well as license terms, data-casting, migration strategies, analogue switch-off and investment incentives are widely debated.

SADIBA and its members have been actively contributing to the work of the DBAB. The association has formulated recommendations on the systems and standards for South Africa and has proposed regulatory and policy approaches members feel would facilitate the structured market driven introduction of digital broadcasting in South Africa.

DBAB final recommendations are expected at the end of February 2002. 

 

Pilot Transmissions

Digital Radio

Operator

Sentech

System

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to mobile, potable and fixed receivers (ETS 300 401)

On air since

December 1997

Sites

Sentech Tower, Johannesburg

 

Kameeldrif, Pretoria

Services

 

New Service (to be announced)

Mono

64 kbit/s

Prot.3

702 on DAB

Simulcast of Radio 702 talk radio on 702 kHz Medium Wave

Mono

64 kbit/s

Prot.3

Classic FM on DAB

Commercial Classical Music station also available on 102.7 MHz in Johannesburg

Stereo

192 kbit/s

Prot.3

YFM on DAB

Simulcast of local Commercial Radio station YFM available on 99.2 MHz in Johannesburg

Stereo Audio with PAD (News on DLS and Automatic Service)

192 kbit/s

Prot.3

UKHOZI

Simulcast of national PBS service with average 10 Million listeners per day on FM.

Joint Stereo

128 kbit/s

Prot.3

Five FM on DAB

Simulcast of national commercial pop / rock station owned and operated by SABC

Stereo

192 kbit/s

Prot.3

Metro on DAB

Simulcast of national metropole based commercial station owned and operated by SABC

Joint Stereo

128 kbit/s

Prot.3

Highveld on DAB

Adult contemporary commercial station available over greater Johannesburg on FM

Stereo

192 kbit/s

Prot.3

Frequency

239.2 MHz (Block 13F) SFN

1466,656 MHz (Block LI)

Coverage area

Greater Gauteng (see Digital Radio Coverage MAP)

Northern Johannesburg

Population Coverage

18% of SA population with

Approximately 9% of SA population

System configuration

Single Frequency Network (SFN) Mode 1

Mode 2

Polarisation

Horizontal in Johannesburg

Vertical in Pretoria

Vertical

 

 Digital Television

Operator

Sentech

System

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Framing structure, channel coding and modulation for digital Terrestrial television (DVB-T). (ETS 300 744)

On air since

February 2000

Sites

Sentech Tower, Johannesburg

Services

5 fixed mode, 2 mobile mode

Coverage area

Greater Johannesburg(see Digital television Coverage MAP)

Population Coverage

Approximately 12% of SA population

System configuration

DVB-T 8k

Fixed:  24.13 MBit/s

64 QAM;  2/3 FEC;  1/32 GI;

 

 

Mobile:  4.98 Mbit/s

QPSK;  ½ FEC;  ¼ GI

Frequency

770 MHz (8 MHz Bandwidth)

Polarisation

Horizontal

 

Operator

Orbicom

System

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Framing structure, channel coding and modulation for digital Terrestrial television (DVB-T). (ETS 300 744)

On air since

November 2001

Site

Helderkruin, Johannesburg

Services

 

Coverage area

Northern Johannesburg

Population Coverage

 

System configuration

 

 

 

Frequency

Channel 62 (802 MHz)

Polarisation

Vertical

 

System configuration

 

System configuration

Channel no

62

OR

Channel no

62

FFT Size

2K

 

FFT Size

8K

FEC

2/3

 

FEC

2/3

Guard Interval

1/8

 

Guard Interval

1/32

Constellation

16 QAM

 

Constellation

64 QAM

 

Both of the above configurations use the standard 8 MHz channel bandwidth. These are frequently changed as experiments take place.