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The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has said government policy prevents it from competing with streaming services like Netflix and Showmax, according to a report by the City press.
In a presentation to be discussed with the parliamentary portfolio committee earlier this year, SABC expressed frustration with the policies and regulations that linked its future growth to the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration project.
The public broadcaster said it operated in a highly regulated environment and that existing policies have had a negative effect on its business model.
The 2008 Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy obliges SABC to use 84% of DTT, which, according to the company, results in an “extremely anti-competitive” environment.
“Our competitors can scale and reach a broader audience with substantially lower distribution costs and time to market,” SABC said.
“Barriers to entry are lowered considerably and more local and global OTT players are entering a less regulated environment.”
The major local and global OTT players in South Africa include Netflix and Showmax, both of which have grown significantly as the adoption of streaming services continues to increase.
This petition echoes the SABC’s complaint about local politics that it voiced last year when it said that wanted to launch a streaming service to compete with Netflix and Showmax.
The broadcaster said at the time that its goal was to put all of its content on its own streaming service, adding that it had developed an integrated OTT strategy with the goal of developing or acquiring its own OTT streaming platform.
“This will allow the SABC to control its own destiny in the future,” SABC said.
At the time, the company said the transition to OTT streaming and digital streaming was key to its survival and financial recovery.
Delays in digital migration
South Africa’s transition to DTT has been a grim and expensive affair, characterized by the government’s ineptitude and inability to meet multiple deadlines.
The transition to this new technology would free up valuable frequency spectrum in the lower ranges, allowing for more efficient broadband growth in South Africa.
Switching from analog television transmissions to digital signals would free up spectrum and allow mobile operators and other service providers to offer better and more affordable broadband connectivity in these bands.
The first deadline for the migration from analogue to digital television in South Africa was set for November 1, 2008.
However, more than a decade later, the government has still not met this goal and has continued to delay this deadline.
The cabinet has now approved 2021 to be the analog disconnect date, but it remains to be seen if it will be able to continue and complete the migration by the end of next year.
The Communications Department acknowledged the delay when it announced the latter deadline in February 2020.
“Progress towards the completion of the BDM program has been very slow, mainly due to the slow rate of migration from households to digital platforms,” the department said.
“Of the total 1.5 million shipments ordered, 1.39 million decoders have been delivered to SAPO warehouses with the delivery of antennas and parabolic antennas completed.”
The next step in spectrum allocation
In May, ICASA published its Final Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan (RSFAP), which covers the frequency band from 470 MHz to 694 MHz.
ICASA said this will allow the immediate availability of the 470MHz to 694MHz band for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) when analog television is turned off.
He said this process will also help in the elimination of the high demand spectrum bands IMT700 and IMT800, bands to be allocated for mobile broadband, ahead of schedule.
This is due to the fact that the process of replenishing the DTT services that currently operate in the frequency bands ranging from 694MHz to 862MHz will allow these DTT services to operate in the range of 470MHz to 694MHz.
The authority has since set which will publish the long-awaited invitation to request high-demand spectrum no later than September 30, 2020.
Since the spectrum is expected to be highly contested, it is expected that an auction will be used to determine how the spectrum will ultimately be allocated.
ICASA has said that the auction will be completed no later than March 31, 2021.
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