It’s been over ten years since South Africa agreed to migrate to digital TV. Several stumbling blocks, misconceived concepts, bad ideas, court cases and mind changes later, and all the country has to show for this mammoth decision – at goodness only knows what final budget – is a small section of the Karoo (around the Square Kilometre Array) and some northern border towns that have officially migrated.

By the time the country actually turns off analogue signal, with all the commensurate benefits that come with it such as more bandwidth, those the government was relying upon to provide the impetus to migrate (the people who can afford it, and don’t need subsidised decoders) won’t care: they’ll have satellite, streaming, or a new generation TV that doesn’t need a box.