Households qualifying to receive government-subsidised decoders in the Free State and North West provinces have until the end of March 2018 to register for these devices.
The analogue signal will be permanently switched off in June 2019 and people will need decoders to watch television. Government has since last year been distributing free decoders to those families that cannot afford commercial devices. However, households that fail to register and receive these decoders will lose access to television services. Television viewing households who subscribe to pay-tv channels will face no signal disruptions as these services are already in the digital decoders that they have.
Families earning below R3200 qualify to receive the government-subsidised decoders. Qualifying households are therefore invited to register at their nearest Post Office. The registration deadline is 31st of March 2018 for the Free State and North West provinces.
We also encourage households that fall outside the qualifying criteria to get digitally-enabled TV sets, and migrate with us! When buying a new TV set, ensure that it has a digital tuner.
Officials from the Department of Communications are currently visiting various municipality districts in the North West and Free State province to register and install government subsidised decoders to qualifying households. This move is aimed at accelerating the installation of decoders with view of completing the installations to qualifying households in the both province.
The registration and installation teams will adopt a phased approach that will see them going through all the district municipalities in the province.
The department has also enlisted the support of provincial and local governments to encourage qualifying residents to register for these government-subsidised decoders.
The Department of Communications is working together with the South African Post Office to reach communities and to distribute the subsidised television decoders to qualifying households.
Enquires: Mish Molakeng 082 469 3997
Department of Communications
