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The district attorney has started an online petition.
Photo: Glenn Carstens-Peters / Unsplash
- The district attorney has started a petition against the government’s plans to introduce new legislation to force viewers to pay for a SABC TV license for smartphones and tablets.
- The draft proposal also wants to enforce a 30% local content quota on streaming services.
- “You shouldn’t have to pay a penny more to keep the SABC afloat!” says the party
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has started a petition against the controversial ANC-led government plan to introduce new legislation to force viewers to pay for a SABC TV license for smartphones and tablets. It would force video broadcasters and pay-TV operators like MultiChoice to charge subscribers for SABC’s TV license fees by adding them to their bills.
“You shouldn’t have to pay a penny more to keep SABC afloat! The public has already had to suffer the consequences of the billions in bailouts that SABC has received through the public purse,” says the political party DA in your new online petition. . “The SABC must find creative ways to self-sustain and break even without causing people like you to shell out more money.”
“Given the emergence of streaming services such as Netflix, Apple TV +, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video and others, the department of communications and digital technologies proposes expanding the definition of ‘broadcasting service’ to include online broadcasting services,” he says the DA.
“This means that you would have to pay a TV SABC license fee to view any ‘streaming service’, including streaming services, regardless of whether it’s on a television, computer or phone.”
We call on all citizens to reject the ANC’s threat to extend the payment of TV license fees to streaming services like Netflix.
We have already had to suffer the consequences of SABC failures.
Make your voice heard now and sign this petition. Https://t.co/qTwNttcu1a
– Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) December 13, 2020
The DA joins the Organization Undoing Fiscal Abuse (OUTA) which in its submission to the controversial plan asks: “Why should Netflix and DStv be required to collect revenue on behalf of another entity and how will this initiative be facilitated? How will the money be distributed? Collected and then delivered to the SABC? “
READ MORE | Eliminate SABC’s TV Licensing Scheme, Says OUTA
“How will subscribers be practically managed because Netflix and DStv subscribers can sign up and cancel at any time?”
The South African public broadcaster in financial distress which once again suspended its downsizing process until 2021 due to political and union pressure, had a net loss of R511 million for its financial year 2019/2020 and is on track to make a loss above R1 .2 billion in the next financial year.
Less than a third of the South African television households that SABC knows have a SABC television license still bother to pay for it.
The proposal to transfer the burden of collecting the TV license fees from SABC on behalf of SABC is contained in the Draft White Paper on the Audiovisual and Audio Content Services Policy Framework: A New Vision for South Africa 2020.
In addition to holding private companies responsible for charging SABC’s TV license fees because SABC cannot do so, the draft proposal also wants to force local and international video streaming services like Netflix, Showmax, Amazon Prime Video. and others in the future, to carry at least 30% local content in the country.
READ MORE | SA wants to impose a 30% local content quota on broadcasters like Netflix: here’s why it’s a bad idea
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