Proposal for DStv to collect TV Licences in South Africa

MultiChoice says it firmly opposes any proposal to collect TV licence fees on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) behalf, either by itself or through other broadcasting and streaming companies.

This is according to feedback to MyBroadband from MultiChoice after the SABC proposed a household tax that will be collected by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and prominent broadcasters and streamers.

“MultiChoice firmly opposes any suggestion that it and streaming companies should be required to collect TV licence fees,” it said.

It added that serious concerns exist about how the SABC would implement such a scheme and whether it would achieve the desired outcome.

“We have long maintained that requiring subscription broadcasters and other commercial players to collect fees on behalf of the SABC is inappropriate, both in principle and practice,” said MultiChoice.

“Moreover, any such obligation would raise concerns around privacy and fairness, not to mention the costs associated with system adjustments and customer service.”

The DStv owner believes that more effective and less intrusive mechanisms exist to improve the collection of TV licence fees.

“We have, for instance, proposed a model wherein SARS could manage TV licence collections,” it said.

“Given the challenges, we believe that the proposal lacks merit and should not be considered further.”

However, it added that it remains committed to engaging with stakeholders on the issue to ensure a fair and sustainable solution.

The SABC has been loss-making since the 2014/15 financial year, with TV licence avoidance being a major contributor to its poor financial performance.

Its annual results for the 2023/24 financial year revealed that TV licence avoidance had reached 86%, meaning only 14% of TV licence holders paid the fees during the financial year.

Of the R4.65 billion billed for TV licences in 2023, the public broadcaster only collected R741.2 million.

The statistic also only counts people who have a TV licence and are refusing to pay. Households who should have a TV licence but don’t are not counted.

The trend of TV licence avoidance is a significant concern for the broadcaster, as it has only increased since 2019.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies supports reworking the public broadcaster’s funding model. It requested that the SABC present it with alternatives to the TV licence scheme.

The SABC’s head of policy and regulatory affairs, Philly Moilwa, recently proposed implementing a household levy that must be paid regardless of whether customers view SABC content.

He argued that access to the SABC’s services has expanded to include various devices and is no longer limited to just TV, necessitating a household levy.

Moreover, he proposed that MultiChoice and SARS must help collect the levy. He said SARS would be the most effective agency for collecting the levies due to its role as a tax collector in the country.

Moilwa also said dominant subscription broadcasters like MultiChoice’s DStv could factor the fees into their subscription costs.

It is unclear how government will avoid double-billing households if subscription broadcasters are required to collect TV licence fees.

SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli says the broadcaster requires interim relief until such time as an alternative funding model is approved and developed.

This isn’t the first time the public broadcaster has proposed a household levy or similar concept to replace its TV licences.

In 2020, it controversially proposed requiring TV licences for all devices that can access its services, including tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

The following year, in its submission on amendments to the SABC Bill, it proposed replacing the TV licence scheme with a household levy.

It also suggested that the dominant pay-TV broadcaster and streaming service collect the fees on its behalf, which MultiChoice opposed.