Will we need TV licences for cellphones?
As mobile operators and broadcasters prepare to offer cellular- and internet-based television, it is still not clear whether consumers will be required to pay licence fees for devices like phones and computers, which do not receive television signals. Consumers now pay R225 a year for a TV licence.
TV licence legislation defines a television set as "any device designed or adapted to be capable of receiving a broadcasting television signal."
Currently there are no regulations for cellular TV or triple play – TV, voice and internet over the same network.
Sekgoela Sekgoela of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) said that cellular TV and triple play would "be clarified in the recommendations stemming from deliberations on commercial satellite and the subscription cable television process".
Icasa held hearings into new pay TV licences two weeks ago and was expected to announce the preferred pay TV providers in November.
South Africa has an estimated 7.5 million television sets and more than 30 million active cellphone users.
The SABC makes 19 percent of its total revenues of R3.9 billion from licence fees.
Analysts said it was likely that the definition of a television set could be enhanced to make provision for any new or converged technologies.
Cellular television has been touted as the next big value-added service in the constantly changing telecommunications and broadcasting industries.
Industry analysts predict that by 2011 more than 200 million people worldwide will be regular users of cellular broadcasting services.
MultiChoice is conducting cellular TV trials in partnership with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C. It plans to offer the service commercially next year.
During the hearings, MultiChoice asked Icasa to issue a technology neutral licence, to enable the group and other operators to provide pay TV content on different platforms, such as cellphones and triple play.
In preparation for competition, MultiChoice is aggressively targeting all segments of the market with the latest launch of DStv Select, aimed at the lower segment of the market. Pay TV applicants, including Khetha Media and Telkom Media, are also targeting the lower end with bouquets starting from R99 a month.
MultiChoice will offer IPTV, or triple play, to existing DStv subscribers from the third quarter of this year.
MultiChoice's chief executive, Nolo Lelete, said that apart from lower broadband access, another impediment for triple play take-up would be access to the fibreoptic cable linking homes and offices.
Telkom is the sole owner of the cable but a process is under way to make it available to others. MultiChoice could then offer triple play as a stand-alone service in partnership with sister company MWeb.
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