{"id":807507,"date":"2025-01-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=807507"},"modified":"2025-01-21T08:18:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T06:18:54","slug":"south-africa-should-kiss-sabc-tv-licences-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/807507\/south-africa-should-kiss-sabc-tv-licences-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa should kiss SABC TV licences goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) plans to replace TV licences in South Africa with a new funding model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communications minister Solly Malatsi explained that he is revising the SABC\u2019s funding model to ensure its sustainability while the SABC Bill is developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the previous Bill he withdrew did not address the cash-strapped broadcaster\u2019s funding model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state broadcaster has been struggling for years with financial instability, declining revenue, and mounting losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SABC\u2019s latest financial report revealed that it is technically insolvent and uncertain about its ability to meet its financial obligations for the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that its audience share has been impacted by the migration of audiences to global streaming platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans who migrate to streaming services watch the service on all types of screens and do not want to pay for TV licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs audiences migrate to consuming content across a range of screens other than television screens, the relevance of this license fee continues to be questioned,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TV licence evasion rate increased from 69% in 2019 to an all-time low of 86% in 2024, which shows that South Africans refuse to pay this fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SABC chairman Khathutshelo Ramukumba said people do not pay their TV licenses because there are no consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf people do not pay their TV licence, we can do nothing to them. Therefore, only those who are patriotic pay their fees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not paying for TV licences has become so commonplace that many government departments do not pay for this fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramukumba shared the view that the SABC must find a competitive and sustainable business model, which includes a different funding model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has to be a discussion about funding the public service mandate through state finances or other means,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, supported Malatsi\u2019s calls for a sustainable funding model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said South Africa needs a public broadcaster and that the news and journalism fulfils a public good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJournalism is the new version of healthcare, education, roads, infrastructure, water, and sanitation,\u201d he told The Money Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the state broadcaster’s importance, Bird said it needs to be funded. He said future funding would most likely come from a public-commercial model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bird said the stakeholders are looking at a public interest content levy to create a more sustainable model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a fee which will be levied on devices, and other entities will be asked to help with the collections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admitted that the public and businesses would resist paying a levy on devices to fund the mismanaged SABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, should the country want credible and reliable information, it must fund journalism, including a public service broadcaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe money must come from somewhere. I am not quite sure what that will look like,\u201d Bird said. He argues that it can be done in a reasonable way and raise a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the money raised by the spectrum action should have gone to a public interest content fund instead of the telecoms regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you sell public assets, the money should not disappear into the fiscus. It should fund journalism and programming, which nobody else will make.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) plans to replace TV licences in South Africa with a new funding model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":807508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[21457,667,20317,10881,21458],"class_list":["post-807507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-sabc","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-tv-licence","tag-william-bird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807510,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807507\/revisions\/807510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}