SABC looks at increasing TV license fees
Speaking at the recent launch of its new TV License Inspectorate, SABC CEO Dali Mpofu said that the broadcaster will ask Government for permission to increase TV license fees.
Mpofu said that while he thinks that an inflationary increase should be seen as a bare minimum, the SABC will be hoping to increase the current fees by far more than that.
Pay TV
Mpofu further said that they are forging ahead with plans to ‘force’ new Pay TV license holders to ensure that their subscribers have a TV license before allowing them to subscribe to any television subscription service.
According to the SABC CEO, South Africa is a country of inequality, and the reality is that people who can afford a TV license must subsidize those households who can not afford it. He said that people who subscribe to a pay-TV service clearly fall into the category of households who can afford to pay their TV license and that the broadcaster can not afford for these individuals to default on their license payments.
Mpofu said that the SABC has asked ICASA to establish policies whereby Pay TV licensees will have to ensure that all their subscribers are TV license holders. Mpofu expressed the hope that the Regulator would agree with their view on the matter.
Penalties
While the SABC’s latest TV license inspectorate initiative is marketed as a friendly and information campaign, households who are not in possession of a TV license stand to pay heavy penalties.
Anybody with a television – or TV enabled device – but without a TV license will have to pay R 450-00, double that of the standard R 225-00 yearly license fee.
Those households which have an ‘outdated’ TV license will have to pay penalties of 10% for every month of outstanding payments, up to a maximum of 100% – hence double the TV license fee.
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