{"id":560841,"date":"2024-09-17T13:04:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=560841"},"modified":"2024-09-17T13:44:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T11:44:04","slug":"sabcs-tv-licence-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/560841-sabcs-tv-licence-pain.html","title":{"rendered":"SABC TV licence pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are expected to continue a public boycott of TV licence fees while the SABC formulates a new funding model that can rid the public broadcaster of its financial distress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to Free Market Foundation senior associate Gary Moore, who believes that the SABC’s days of generating revenue through TV licence fees are coming to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SABC’s TV licence compliance rate plummeted from 31% to 13% between the broadcaster’s 2018 and 2023 financial years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of 2023, the South African public owed the SABC R44 billion in unpaid TV licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are only those households who previously had a TV licence and are now refusing to pay. It does not account for those who bought their TVs on someone else’s licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore points out that the SABC reported a total of R4.7 billion invoiced for TV licence fees payable in its financial year ending 31 March 2023, of which only R741 million was collected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This amounted to only 16% of the public broadcaster’s revenue \u2014 advertising comprised 57%, sponsorships made up 15%, and the rest came from other sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same law that obligates South Africans to pay a TV tax also holds the SABC to a very stringent broadcasting mandate, requiring it to programme its broadcasting in a way that is often unappealing to advertisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Broadcasting Act of 1999 requires SABC to programme its five TV channels and 18 radio stations to treat all population segments equally and broadcast a wide variety of audience interests in all official languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the SABC has noted, this comes at a great cost and makes attracting advertising revenue difficult for more niche broadcasting segments, resulting in a financial loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Broadcasting Act also mandates that South Africans pay for a TV licence if they own and use a TV in their household. This also applies to businesses that own a TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to pay for the licence will incur a 10% monthly penalty up to a maximum of 100% per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the Act specifies that a court could impose a maximum penalty of R500 fine or up to six months in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gary Moore, attorney and Free Market Foundation senior associate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Moore pointed out that the boycott of TV licence payments is not a recent occurrence, and the government’s attempts to intervene have proven ineffective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When laws are absurd, their observance becomes absurd, too,” says Moore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But when disregard for the law enters the psyche of any society, it becomes difficult to have that society respect useful laws such as those against harming persons or property.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former communications minister Mondli Gungubele tabled the South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Ltd Bill 32 of 2023 in the National Assembly to replace the Broadcasting Act of 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill reproduces all provisions of the Broadcasting Act, including the requirement that South Africans obtain a TV licence and pay a sum to the SABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also stipulates that communications and finance ministers will need to conduct a feasibility study and create a new funding model within three years of the bill being enacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This must ensure that “the majority of the Corporation’s funding is sourced from the State-based funding mechanisms”. Moore said the precise meaning of this phrase is unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore argued that the process to pass the bill is also still more than a year away, as it still needed to make its way through parliament, after which the president can sign it into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One can reasonably expect that any such new funding model for the Corporation will not be finalised and implemented in less than five years,” said Moore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the meantime, the current situation of mass refusal by users of television sets to pay the prescribed fees to obtain television licences will continue, with the Corporation being in a continual state of financial crisis.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans are expected to continue evading TV licence fees despite the SABC’s efforts to enforce payment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341175,"featured_media":464039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66819,65667,77340,361],"class_list":["post-560841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-broadcasting-act","tag-free-market-foundation-fmf","tag-gary-moore","tag-sabc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560841"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560904,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560841\/revisions\/560904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}