TV News South Africa

SABC to go digital

The SABC has announced partnerships with Arivia.com and Safika Technologies on the local front and with international players BBC Technology and Tata Consulting Services for a R300m to R500m initiative to transform to a digital platform.

SABC Technology head Sharoda Rapeti comments: "We are actually focusing on the production chain. We are very cognisant of digital broadcasting as it would and must exist as a transmission standard. There is no infrastructure in the country at the moment. There are a few pilot transmitters that offer digital broadcasting, but most definitely none that most of the consumers are aware of or have had the opportunity to participate in a full end to end-to-end trial. So we are cognisant of digital broadcasting. We've been interfacing with the other big major stakeholders in the country so that we have a somewhat 80% certainty of what the standard is likely to be."

Rapeti says that the group will focus on finding solutions to the obstacles of price and computer literacy.

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