The Public Service Broadcasting Bill 2009 has recently been Gazetted for comment, and is set to repeal the Broadcasting Act no. 4 of 1999. The Public Service Broadcasting Bill deals with various issues, including funding for development broadcasting and establishing a ‘Public Service Broadcasting Fund’.<\/p>\n
The Public Service Broadcasting Fund will comprise personal income tax, money appropriated by parliament, contributions from broadcasting services licensees, contributions from business and ‘money accruing from any other source’. <\/p>\n
Good news for some consumers is that TV license fees set to be scrapped. Bad news for people without TV licenses is that existing TV licenses will remain valid, and therefore payable, until the end of the financial year when the new broadcasting act comes into force. Money owed to the SABC in terms of TV licenses will also remain valid until fully paid up.<\/p>\n
The new Public Service Broadcasting Bill forms part of Nyanda’s plan “new vision and mandate for public broadcasting services in line with SA’s developmental agenda”. Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda has previously employed a special task team to advise him on the optimum funding model for the SABC’s public and commercial broadcasting services. <\/p>\n
It is assumed that a funding model which excludes TV license fees has been suggested to the Minister which may well be a combination of state funding and advertising revenue.<\/p>\n
In a previous discussion document the DoC sought comment on various issues related to TV license fees, including whether the TV ownership method is still justified as a requirement for a TV license when TV receivers are no longer the sole means in which broadcast content is distributed. The question was also asked as to whether TV license fees can be maintained as a revenue stream to fund public broadcasting services in the view of technological changes.<\/p>\n
The new Public Service Broadcasting Bill 2009 – which also addresses issues surrounding Sentech’s mandate, the local content industry and community broadcasting services – is open for comment until 7 December 2009.<\/p>\n