South Africa's Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) has published the 2026 Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Regulations under the Electronic Communications Act of 2005.

The regulations establish a comprehensive framework for digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB), covering multiplex capacity allocation, channel authorisation procedures and signal transmission requirements.

Main provisions

The regulations confirm DVB-T2 as the digital terrestrial television standard, using MPEG-4 or more advanced compression technology. Broadcasting services may be provided in standard definition (SDTV) or high definition (HDTV).

Seven multiplex channels (Mux 1-7) are defined within the 470-694 MHz band, with capacity allocated as follows:

Multiplexes 1 and 5: reserved for public broadcasting services (100 percent of capacity);

Multiplex 2: commercial and community broadcasting services;

Multiplex 3: free-to-air broadcasting services;

Multiplex 4: subscription broadcasting services, subject to a licence;

Multiplex 6: community broadcasting services (100 percent of capacity);

Multiplex 7: reserved for trials, testing and demonstrations.

Any allocated capacity that remains unused for 36 months may be forfeited and reallocated by the authority.

All broadcasting licensees must obtain prior approval from ICASA before transmitting any digital channel, with a decision to be made within 60 days unless a hearing is required. Signal transmission must be provided by licensed electronic communications network service (ECNS) operators, and broadcasters may enter into regulated agreements where necessary. Multiplex operators are responsible for managing transmission infrastructure and transport stream aggregation.