Broadcasters will know officially this Friday what decision government has taken regarding the standard SA will adopt for digital terrestrial television. Communications minister Roy Padayachie has called a press conference at which he is expected to announce that the country will adopt the second generation of the European standard.

TechCentral revealed last Monday that cabinet had decided at its last meeting of 2010 to adopt the European standard, known as DVB-T2. A ministerial adviser confirmed to TechCentral that the cabinet minutes reflected the decision.

But broadcasters have been left in limbo after cabinet failed to announce its decision in the formal statement issued at the conclusion of its meeting. Government spokesman Themba Maseko told TechCentral at the time that cabinet had mandated Padayachie to make the announcement when he was ready to do so.

The delay prompted concern among commercial broadcasters that government would instead stump for a rival standard, Japan’s ISDB-T, which has been adopted by Brazil. Both Brazil and Japan have lobbied hard for the Southern African region to adopt their standard.

This lobbying prompted communications ministers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to appoint a task team to investigate whether the region should reconsider its 2006 commitment to the International Telecommunication Union to adopt the European standard.

The task team recommended that SADC countries adopt DVB-T2, but left the final decision up to individual countries. But it’s understood that cabinet has endorsed the task team’s findings and the country will adopt the European system.

It’s speculated that Padayachie asked cabinet to delay the announcement of its decision so he could attempt to placate a lobby group of small, black-led companies that had wanted the country to adopt the Japanese-Brazilian standard.

The lobby group, the National Association of Manufacturers in Electronics Components, argued that cabinet made the wrong decision and was “clearly poorly advised” on the value of the Japanese-Brazilian standard. Association chairman Keith Thabo said government didn’t consult with enough stakeholders and that adopting the European standard would benefit only entrenched broadcasting interests. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral