MEDIA STATEMENT
27 January 2025
MMA and SOS join e.tv (PTY) Limited in lodging an affidavit at the High Court of South Africa
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) join e.tv (PTY) limited in filling an affidavit at the High Court of South Africa. This affidavit follows the latest postponement of the Analogue Switch-off (ASO) to 31 March 2025. The affidavit addresses the devasting impact of the premature ASO on the public, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), community television broadcasters and the exclusion of MMA and SOS from regular consultations with broadcasters.
The current ASO date of 31st March 2025 will have the following significant impact:
• Poor and marginalised communiNes will be cut off from free to air television thus denying their right to access to informaNon.
• Loss of adverNsing and sponsorship revenue for the SABC
• The free-to-air audience will diminish from 55.1% of television household populaNon to 26.6% of television household populaNon.
We are hoping that the High Court rules in the public interest as the Constitutional Court did in 2022 in a case of e.tv (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies and Others CCT89/22 &CCT92/22; when it declared the ASO date of 30 June 2022 as unconstitutional, having thoroughly examined the impact it would have on the public and the broadcasters.
We are also hopeful that the government will reconsider and postpone the ASO date of 31st March 2025 to ensure a proper roll-out of the set-top boxes (STBs) so that no South African is left without access to television.
For more information contact:
William Bird (MMA Director)
williamb@mma.org.za
072 887 1370
Uyanda Siyotula (SOS National Coordinator)
natcoord@soscoalition.org.za
060 691 2462