Pay-TV operator MultiChoice says it is concerned that the new board at the cash-strapped SABC is demanding payment for what used to be a free service, in a bid to raise revenue.
According to MultiChoice, it is illogical for the public broadcaster to now require its DStv bouquet to pay to carry the SABC’s three channels as they are freely available in any case. But the SABC argues that MultiChoice has benefited from having the channels on DStv, claiming the three are among the most watched on the platform.
In 2008 the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) introduced the "must carry" regulations, which compelled pay-TV companies to carry the SABC’s free-to-air channels — SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 — in support of universal access.
In a recent letter to Icasa, SABC chairman Bongumusa Makhathini said that the "must carry" rules had "had a serious impact on the SABC from a potential revenue point of view".
New revenue streams
The dispute comes at a time when the new SABC board is looking to unlock new revenue streams in a bid to remedy the public broadcaster’s dire financial situation. The Treasury is yet to approve the SABC’s request for a R3bn guarantee after the broadcaster made record losses in the past two financial years.
The Icasa regulations "zero rate" the SABC channels and had created a "noncommercial negotiating environment", Makhathini wrote.
MultiChoice had written to Icasa taking issue with being singled out by the SABC. It also said it was "disingenuous" of the SABC to raise a nine-year-old issue out of the blue.
MultiChoice SA CEO Calvo Mawela told Business Day the "must carry" regulations were introduced to ensure that as many people as possible had access to the SABC channels, "which is their [SABC’s] mandate anyway".
"I cannot comprehend the SABC’s position…. As you know, nobody has to pay to receive the channels except for the TV licence…. The channels are therefore freely available anyway … our carriage is to make it easy for our subscribers to access the channels without the need to put an aerial to receive the channels that are freely available," said Mawela.
In its submission to Icasa, the SABC said the regulation seemed to have been drafted on the basis that the "must carry obligation" was an onerous one for subscription broadcasters, which would be "doing the public broadcaster a favour" by carrying its channels.
"The SABC will demonstrate in the public process that, on the contrary, the SABC ‘must carry’ channels have commercially benefited MultiChoice Africa at the expense of the public broadcaster," said Makhathini.
"By reviewing and amending the regulations, [Icasa] will be fulfilling one of its core statutory objectives as set out in … the Electronic Communications Act, which is to ‘protect the integrity and viability of public broadcasting services’," Makhathini said.
Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said on Tuesday the regulator had engaged with the SABC on the matter. "Should the need arise [to review the regulations], obviously it will be a consultative engagement with all interested stakeholders."
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