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You may have received a SMS (or five) with words in it like ‘migrate,’ ‘analogue,’ ‘digital,’ and ‘deadline,’ and like most you probably swiped it away immediately without giving it a second thought. You may have even seen headlines with those exact words in them, and perhaps the newsreader mentioned them on the 8pm news that was playing in the background while you ate your dinner. The problem with thinking that things don’t directly affect us, is that sometimes they do.

“The move from analogue to digital is a long time coming,” says Jaco Joubert, SKYWORTH brand manager. “16 years long, to be exact.” It was in 2006 when South Africa acceded to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Regional Agreement in Geneva determining countries must migrate from Analogue Television to Digital TV by 17 June 2015. The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration process is a global technology enhancement initiative that aims to leapfrog countries into digital domains, targeting to improve quality of services and enable efficient use of spectrum resources. The date came and went with progress rather slow.

However, in his State of the Nation Address last month, President Ramaphosa stated that on 31 March 2022 government will switch off the analogue signal that currently transmits TV audio and video images to households across the country. “This means that if you’re still receiving television services directly from an ariel or antenna on your roof, or on a pole outside your home, and do not have a set-top box or smart TV, you’ll no longer have television signal come month-end,” explains Joubert.

Thankfully, when it comes to SKYWORTH televisions, consumers needn’t worry about the switch over from analogue to digital and how this may affect them. “Living up to our ‘Lead the future’ motto, all our TVs are digital with built-in digital tuners and are therefore able to receive digital signal.”

Joubert describes the migration to digital as a positive one and highlights some of the benefits below:

Improved quality – Digital TV pictures are clearer

Improved free-to-air services – South Africans will now be able to receive 12 TV channels compared to the four currently on analogue (SABC 1, 2, 3 and eTV)

Improved pay and subscription services – South Africans will now receive 14 TV channels on paid for digital, compared to the current two channels on analogue pay TV (Mnet and CSN)

Of course, with SKYWORTH’s Android TV offering there is so much more. Users can choose from 700,000+ movies and shows from across streaming services. Ask Google to control your TV, get recommendations of what to watch, dim the lights, and more. Additionally, users can cast photos, videos, and music from smart devices to their TV with Chromecast built in.