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The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said it plans to enforce quotas for local content on streaming services like Netflix.
the proposal it is included in the department’s white paper on the Audiovisual and Audio Content Services Policy Framework, which is currently open for public comment. The department presented the framework to parliament on Wednesday (November 25).
In his presentation, the department’s chief director of broadcasting policy, Collin Mashile, said that local content should be “enabled” by additional political interventions within the audiovisual broadcasting space.
“Where video-on-demand subscription services come and operate in South Africa, whatever they show South Africans in terms of their catalog, 30% of that catalog must be South African content,” Mashile said.
“What this means is that we are trying to create opportunities for the creative and production industry sector.”
While US-based streaming services like Netflix have increased production of local content in recent years, making just under a third of all content on the platform local can prove particularly onerous for the giant. transmission.
Mashile addressed this by noting the popularity of local programs in South Africa. “They asked us where we got the idea that South Africans are interested in this 30%,” he said. “The most popular shows in all countries are still local shows.”
The White Paper also expands the definition of “broadcasting service” to include online broadcasting services.
By implication, that would require paying a license fee to view any “streaming service” that would include streaming services, regardless of what device it is viewed on.
In a opinion piece Posted in early November, SABC’s television licensing director Sylvia Tladi said changes need to be made to South Africa’s broadcasting regulations, including an expanded definition of ‘television’ or now, a broadcast device.
Some of the devices that are being considered under this expanded definition include:
- Laptops;
- Tablets;
- IPTV;
- Internet;
- Decoders;
- Decoders;
- Smartphones.
Tladi said that these devices, which have given rise to new media platforms and content broadcast channels, have a direct impact on TV licensing legislation.
He said the SABC filing also calls for a revised television license fee system and changes in legislation regarding the public funding strategies provided for by television licenses.
“To ensure maximum compliance with the legislative requirements related to the payment of television license fees, the SABC proposes that the law impose stricter obligations on all interested parties or relevant actors because ‘traditional’ television is no longer the only means of receiving a television broadcast.
“Therefore, to administer compliance with the payment of license fees, the SABC believes that other entities should be obliged to report on the sale, lease or use of these ‘televisions’ or ‘display devices’.
Read: The government goes ahead with TV licenses for Netflix and other changes
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