Licences for SABC mobile TV?
2009-07-06 07:29
Cape Town – The SABC wants to fill its empty coffers by earning "free" additional income by means of, amongst other things, instituting licence fees for cellphone TV.
If the government grants such a licence plan to the SABC, it will generate millions of rands in income for the public broadcaster, especially considering next year’s Soccer World Cup. Millions of South Africans and foreign visitors are expected to watch matches on their cellphones.
According to an official SABC report, the broadcaster has made all kinds of plans to fill its empty coffers. The SABC is currently R839m in the red.
These plans made by Robin Nicholson, chief financial officer (CFO) of the SABC, vary between drastic annual increases in TV licence fees and trying to convince government to pay for the SABC’s "white elephants".
The SABC would also like to get its hands on MultiChoice’s client database, or even generate income by "managing" the database. The SABC wants to know which households have paid DStv but no SABC licences. They’re even considering having MultiChoice collect licence fees from DStv subscribers on the SABC’s behalf.
"DStv database management" will generate millions in income for the SABC.
Big plan to introduce cellphone TV licences
MultiChoice was approached for comment on the matter on Saturday morning, but had not responded by Sunday afternoon.
Between 2011 and 2014 the broadcaster wants to increase its annual income from TV licences by means of better collection measures and planned license fee hikes, and thus make millions of rands out of the viewing public.
From 2012 onward, the SABC is planning to ask government for an additional “licence fee subsidy”, since the poorest television watching households can’t afford licence fees. Income from licensing represents 17% of the broadcaster’s total annual income.
However, the broadcaster’s big plan is to introduce cellphone TV licences.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) published the latest regulations regarding cellphone TV, or in other words mobile TV operators, in the Government Gazette on Friday. Apparently Icasa is planning to appoint mobile TV operators before the end of this year, in order for these operators to be up and running with cellphone broadcasts by the time the World Cup kicks off.
The SABC wants to start tapping this new licensing source immediately.
According to the SABC’s calculations, compulsory new cellphone TV licences for mobile TV operators will bring in a substantial amount of additional income.
Even though the SABC has asked before and been refused by government, it is continuing with attempts to convince the government to carry 50% of the total running costs and broadcasting expenses of the SABC News International channel.
SABC News International is the brainchild of the broadcaster’s former head of news, Snuki Zikalala. The channel is run at a cost of millions of rands per month, and is seen by an extremely limited viewing audience on Sentech’s separate Vivid satellite platform. The channel is widely considered to be a white elephant, which the broadcaster is simply too proud to shut down.
Furthermore, the SABC wants to convince Icasa to change certain broadcasting regulations in order for all sport content to count as local content. In so doing, the SABC can produce and broadcast less local TV content, which will save money. Sport broadcasting costs the SABC R284m annually.