SABC wants TV licence price increase

The SABC wants to increase South Africa’s TV licence fee as one of several interim measures in a turnaround plan to become financially sustainable over the next few years.

During a briefing to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) last week, the public broadcaster revealed it would request the hike from the communications department.

The SABC explained that TV licence compliance remained lower than 20%, with most revenue coming from “legacy” holders.

It said people no longer regarded the licence as a legitimate or necessary item and used their parents’ licences to buy TV sets when they moved out, instead of acquiring their own licence.

“There’s no new person like a young person that is buying a TV licence,” the SABC said. “It’s the same people that were paying from day one (who) are paying today.”

“The people that have not paid from day one are the people that are not paying today. It’s the same pool of people that are paying the TV license at the SABC.”

Presumably, the broadcaster wants to draw as much revenue as possible from the small number of remaining licence holders while its new funding model is being developed.

That process is currently at an impasse due to a standoff over the SABC Bill between communications minister Solly Malatsi and communications portfolio committee chairperson Khusela Diko.

Malatsi sought to withdraw the bill because it failed to address the SABC’s funding crisis in the short term.

However, Diko has maintained that the legislation’s shortcomings can be amended through Parliamentary procedures and that withdrawing the bill would be the “death-knell” for the SABC.

The SABC has appealed to Scopa to help in creating a sense or urgency in the government to support its plans.

It is unclear precisely when the SABC wants the new fee to come into effect.

The fact that it is the first step in its 7-step “Path to sustainability” turnaround plan suggests that it could be an immediate priority.

The infographic below outlines the broadcaster’s proposed pathway, as presented to Scopa last week.

Increase amount a mystery for now

It is unclear exactly how much the SABC wants to raise the R265 licence fee if the government approves its plan.

The fee was last adjusted 12 years ago. If the broadcaster had used inflation-linked increases since the last adjustment, the fee would have increased by roughly 77.6% to R471 in April 2025.

In 2013, the fee was increased from R250 to R265, a 6% difference.

However, the previous R250 fee had been in effect from 2009. Therefore, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the TV licence fee was just 1.5%.

If that CAGR were applied to the past 12 years, the new fee in April 2025 should have been about R322 — roughly 21.5% higher than the current fee.

It remains to be seen whether increasing the fee would have the desired effect of pushing up licencing revenue — or pushing away the last holdouts from continuing to diligently pay their fees.

In the financial year that the SABC previously increased its TV licence fee, revenue from this source stood at R928 million.

The number climbed to R986 million over the next two financial years but had slumped to R726 million by the SABC’s 2023/2024 financial year.

The SABC’s comments to Scopa last week suggested that the TV licence may not fall away even after the broadcaster has secured a new source of funding.

“We are actually looking at this particular matter of the revised fund and model, whether or not it will replace the TV licence,” the SABC said.