Gadgets29.07.2024

Goodbye TV licence — big monitors and projectors that can replace TVs

By Myles Illidge

It is against the law in South Africa to sell a TV to someone without a valid TV licence.

However, those looking to ditch the SABC’s TV licence have a broad range of large monitors and high-resolution projectors from which to choose.

The SABC’s debt collectors often send defaulting customers several weekly SMSes, demanding they pay any outstanding amounts.

According to Anneke Lotter, a senior associate at Barnard Incorporated Attorneys, the SABC and its debt collectors can send as many SMSes as they deem necessary without breaching South Africa’s harassment laws.

She explained that the requirement to pay TV licences is legislated, making it mandatory. Furthermore, the SABC’s debt collection messages don’t cause harm.

“The Protection against Harassment Act 17 of 2011 defines ‘harassment’ as ‘directly or indirectly engaging in conduct that he or she knows or ought to know causes or will cause harm to another person’,” said Lotter.

“Receiving multiple communiqués regarding non-compliance with legislation is not intended to cause harm, nor can it be perceived by the recipient to cause or potentially cause harm.”

“Whilst it understandably can cause a nuisance to television users when receiving multiple text messages, it unfortunately does not amount to anything more,” added Lotter.

SABC TV licence customers have a history of non-compliance, with most holders refusing to pay the required fees.

TV licence payment avoidance reached 87% in 2022/23, meaning only 13% of already-registered TV licence holders paid their fees for the year.

This presents a significant challenge for the public broadcaster, as it relies on TV licence payments as a substantial portion of its revenue collection.

To this end, the public broadcaster collected just R741 million in TV licence revenue in 2023, R3.76 billion short of what it had billed.

Furthermore, historical TV licence debt has also climbed to over R44 billion.

However, the current TV licence scheme could be scrapped and replaced with a household levy that all homeowners must pay, regardless of whether they consume SABC content.

In recent feedback to MyBroadband, the SABC said it supported implementing a household levy to replace the current scheme.

However, it remains unclear who will collect the household levy payments.

The SABC previously suggested that South Africa’s dominant pay-TV broadcaster, MultiChoice, should be responsible for collections. MultiChoice rejected this proposition.

While it supports the idea of a household levy, it baulked at the idea of being held responsible for collecting tax revenues on behalf of a government entity.

South Africans wanting to ditch the SABC TV licence scheme can opt for a large monitor or high-resolution projector with an HDMI port without having to pay TV licence fees.

MyBroadband looked for big-screen monitors and HD projectors that meet various needs and budgets.

Below are ten big-screen monitors and ten high-resolution projectors you can buy without a TV licence.