Rogue satellite TV group vows to defy Icasa
Free2View, a UK-based satellite television service broadcasting from Paris into s ub- Saharan Africa is breaking the rules with wil ful abandon, raising questions about whether regulation can keep up with the pace of technology.
The company, which recently announced it had secured the rights to air US news channel MSNBC, plans to grow its list of channels to 36 over the next three years. But it does not hold a broadcast licence in SA, a move Icasa believes will cost them.
“We are bringing content to a continent that has been starved of it and we’re going to do it free, without having a piece of paper that (we) couldn’t acquire even if we tried,” said Free2View chief operating officer Elissa Wilding.
Icasa said it had a variety of options it could follow to stop Free2View from offering its service, including obtaining a court interdict to stop the illegal activity. The regulator said on Friday that Free2View would be acting in contravention of the Electronic Communications Act.
“Any entity that intends to provide a broadcasting service intended for receipt within the borders of SA requires a licence issued by Icasa. Any attempt to provide such a service constitutes a criminal offence … the authority has mechanisms in place to deal with such circumstances,” it said.
Free2View ’s chief technical director Malcolm Ramsay said : “What can they do to stop us, short of shooting a satellite out of the sky or arresting people who have a satellite dish and decoder?
“The constitution guarantees you can receive and impart information — we are merely imparting information. As to how and where people can receive free satellite transmissions … unless (Icasa) wants to go back to the apartheid era, there is nothing they can do.”
Free2View plans to make its income from advertising. However, if it is not legally able to operate in SA, it cannot actively sell airtime to advertisers here, Ramsay said. However, there is nothing stopping advertisers from buying ad-space from the group’s London offices.
Because the uplink site — where the signal is distributed to the Usat satellite — is based in Paris and the company is registered in the UK, Icasa may find it difficult to stop the pirate broadcasters.
Icasa spokesman Joel Sekgoela said the regulator was planning to start the free-to-air regulatory process next year , but until that had been completed, Free2View was operating illegally and could be stopped.
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