Southern Africa adopts DVB-T2 digital TV standard

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has adopted the MPEG-4 DVB-T2 standard and has a target date for switchover of Dec 31, 2013.

On Nov 24, at a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, representatives of the 15 nation SADC agreed on the standard and
re-affirmed the switchover date.

In 2013 it will give the 13 member countries a TV system that is in advance of the United Kingdom which will still be using the old MPEG-2 DVB-T standard developed in the last century. This obsolete system dramatically reduces viewer choice as it has just half the channels of the modern MPEG-4 DVB-T2 standard.

DVB-T2 is now starting to be used in the UK for HDTV channels and hopefully one day in the future will be used for all channels but no dates have been announced for a second UK digital switchover.

Outcome of the SADC special session on Digital TV standards
http://www.sadc.int/attachment/download/file/477

SADC - Digital TV Migration
http://www.sadc.int/index/browse/page/817

2006 - UK's Freeview boxes could soon be obsolete
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2006/
freeview.htm

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