Communications regulator Icasa has taken another step towards digital radio in South Africa, calling for nominations to a technical advisory group that will help shape how the long-delayed technology is rolled out.
In a government gazette dated 8 June 2026, Icasa has invited licensees to nominate candidates to serve on the Digital Sound Broadcasting Technical Advisory Group (DTAG), established under regulation 4(4) of the digital sound broadcasting services regulations introduced in 2021.
The authority wants to appoint 10 members – two each drawn from licensed public, commercial and community sound broadcasters, plus two each from licensed individual and class electronic communications network service providers. Members will need technical engineering knowledge and regulatory understanding and will serve voluntarily without remuneration until the group’s mandate is fulfilled.
According to the gazette, licensees have raised a range of technical issues during the drafting of the DSB regulations that the DTAG could now help resolve. These include a frequency plan for all multiplexers, a review of the terrestrial broadcasting frequency plan and a review of the licensing framework to accommodate three tiers of radio broadcasting in a digital environment, alongside technical specifications, a type-approval framework and a national standard for digital radio.
These are the foundations on which any commercial digital radio service would eventually be built. South Africa has adopted a dual-standard approach allowing both DAB+ and Digital Radio Mondiale, and the DRM South Africa Group launched a trial earlier this year.
Tight deadline
The closing date for nominations is tight: 4pm on 15 June, barely a week after the notice was gazetted. Nominations must be submitted in writing to project manager Ndumiso Dana.
Read: South African digital radio trial is about to go live
Whether the technical groundwork translates into services that consumers actually want remains an open question, given the scarcity of digital radio receivers in the local market and the steady migration of listeners to streaming and on-demand audio.
Digital radio is expected to complement rather than replace existing analogue broadcasts on the FM band for many years to come. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media