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Netflix.
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- SABC wants users of the streaming service to pay for a TV license.
- Vice Minister of Communications Pinky Kekana presented the proposal to parliament to expand the definition of television license.
- Kekana said that because people consume content on different platforms “we should see how we can get license fees from SABC from those devices.”
South Africans who watch video streaming services like Netflix or pay TV services like DStv or StarSat, and who do not even watch or use the services of the South African public broadcaster, could be forced to pay a TV license fee SABC as an obligation. “traffic ticket”.
This is the latest plan by the struggling South African public broadcaster to shore up its finances.
Pinky Kekana, South Africa’s deputy communications minister, told parliament’s communications portfolio committee on Tuesday morning that SABC wants to expand the definition of the existing mandatory SABC TV license that people must pay with a television set.
The SABC now wants the existing legislation on SABC’s TV licenses to be amended.
Only a small percentage of South African households with TVs still bother to pay their annual SABC TV license fee with millions of people who don’t. Meanwhile, the precarious financial situation of the overstaffed public broadcaster has seen it constantly shake off from crisis to crisis.
The SABC, which secured another government bailout earlier this year, is currently fighting with the Bemawu and CWU unions over staff cuts. In August they asked the government for another 1.5 billion rand in financial aid from Covid-19 to stay afloat.
The SABC now wants pay-TV operators like MultiChoice that runs DStv, China’s StarTimes that runs StarSat, as well as subscription video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Showmax and others that operate in South Africa, to collect the fees. SABC TV license on behalf. of the wrestler SABC.
The government and the SABC also want people’s SABC TV license fees even when they are not watching SABC or when they are not using a traditional TV to watch it, for example when someone is watching Netflix or Showmax on a tablet or mobile device . .
“We are not just limiting it to television,” Kekana said. “We also have other platforms where people consume content, and in all those areas, that’s where we should see how we can get license fees from SABC for those devices.”
Kekana’s presentation to parliament cites “key regulatory reforms” including the need “for payment service providers like MultiChoice and video-on-demand (VOD) providers like Netflix to obtain television licenses on behalf of SABC in a similar way to municipalities that collect traffic tickets and motor vehicle debt from motorists, and the expanded definition of a television license is outdated and needs to be addressed to current reality. “
