Big changes coming for TV licences in South Africa

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) plans to abolish TV licences, and it wants the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and MultiChoice to help with its new funding mechanisms.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation Bill was introduced to Parliament in October 2023 and revived in July of this year following the swearing-in of the seventh administration.

The Bill broadly aims to implement the following:

• To repeal the Broadcasting Act of 1999;

• To regulate the continued existence of the South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Ltd;

• To provide for its governance;

• To amend the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act of 2000 and the Electronic Communications Act of 2005;

• To provide for matters connected therewith.

Although many had hoped that the initial Bill would solve the SOC’s financial woes, it failed to provide a detailed explanation.

Instead, it stated that the minister in charge, the minister of communications and digital technologies, will have to develop a model for funding the SABC in three years.

This raised concerns as the SABC has been mired in financial instability over the years and recorded a R1.1 billion loss in the 2022/23 financial year. The broadcaster has often had to ask the government for multi-million rand bailouts to keep its operations going.

Earlier this year, over 9 million South Africans were estimated to owe R44 billion in unpaid TV licence fees.

The broadcaster is also one of the most commercial public-dependent broadcasters in the world, with 80% of its revenue coming from advertising.

Plans to fix the issue

However, the SABC did lay out its plans to fund itself and do away with the TV licence.

During oral hearings on the Bill before the Portfolio Committee on Digital Technologies and Communications, the SABC said it wants to introduce a device-independent levy on households.

The broadcaster said there was a move away from TV licences worldwide, which includes using other commercial broadcasters to collect a fee or public broadcasting fee. The SABC said that the TV licence-free regime is redundant and unenforceable as it is based on TV sets and not screens.

Thus, the device-independent levy is essentially a household levy based on the ability to access the SABC’s services.

The SABC said the levy will be used to sustainably fund its public service mandate, including funding for local content production.

It added that SARS would be the best organisation to collect the household levy, given its reputation as an efficient and effective collection authority.

Another mode of collection could be the dominant subscription broadcaster levy, where a dominant subscription broadcaster, such as MultiChoice, can assist the SABC via its own funding system.

The SABC said that the dominant subscription broadcaster can deny customers a service unless they pay their licence.

However, it remains to be seen if MultiChoice would be keen on the move. During the oral hearings, it heavily criticised the Bill, stating that it had not been informed by clear policy.

Looking beyond, the SABC also hopes to access the Universal Service Fund (USAF), run by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.

The USAF sees broadcasters and telcos pay a fee based on their annual turnover for universal services of electronic communications network services.

The SABC noted that Section 88(1) of the Electronic Communications Act allows broadcasters access to a USAF subsidy for constructing or extending electronic communications network services in under-serviced areas.

The SABC said it could use the USAF to finance its underserviced public service mandate.

The SOE is also hopeful of receiving supplementary funding from government departments, which would ring-fence and allocate a budget for SABC content.

The Department would fund programmes aligned with their function and national development goals.

The oral hearings on the Bill can be found below:

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