AstraSat
[2] In December 1995, it was announced that the SABC would operate its satellite television service using analogue technology, in opposition to the newly launched DStv, which was entirely digital.Neil Smuts of Sentech said that analogue television gave viewers a "reliable, quality image" with the goal of reaching out to the highest number of South Africans possible.Multichoice wasn't favouring the SABC's decision, especially with then-ongoing trends in Europe regarding the phasing out of analogue satellite technologies.[4] Following the launch of the two free-to-air channels in July, it was announced in September that the encryption of the services wasn't viable until March or April 1997.[13] Gert Claassen, Chief Executive of AstraSat, said that as of late July 1996, it was the only time the service reported such difficulties, having maintained a good picture and audio quality.Coupled with the decision were the conversion of the SABC channels to digital, tasked by Sentech, and the launch of its terrestrial networks on the DStv platform.[14] Rob Stevenson of the SABC said in September 1998 that analogue turned out to be expensive for the broadcaster, giving advantage to the digital system, which has the capacity of carrying more channels.