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The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is having serious problems getting South Africans to pay for their television licenses.
In a recent presentation to parliament, the public broadcaster said the lockdown has severely limited its ability to collect television license fees through its normal channels.
This is because several services stopped during the blackout period, including printing and mailing to licensees, as it was not considered an essential service.
Payments at retail payment points also decreased due to COVID-19 restrictions, and regulations prohibited the continuation of call center operations.
“TV Licenses cash for all sources of income began to improve slightly in June, the period in which many restrictions were relaxed and providers were able to operate,” said SABC.
“However, due to the economic climate that has had an effect on the cash disposition of licensees, compliance levels have not improved and are expected to decline steadily through the remainder of 2020.”
Default and debt collection
The SABC admitted that increased non-compliance by licensees had hurt its revenue collection during the year.
Year-to-date cash collections (April 1 – July 31, 2020) amount to R228.05 million with a deficit of R166.99 million (42.3%). Year over year, cash income is R17.97 million (7.3%) less than the previous fiscal year.
The public broadcaster also said it has legal recourse against South Africans who do not pay for their television licenses.
Under the 1999 Broadcasting Act, those who do not pay for their television licenses will face a fine not exceeding R500 or a prison term of up to six months.
However, he said he does not pursue this remedy for various reasons.
“The aforementioned legislated remedy is available to the SABC, however it would be difficult and impractical to implement due to socio-economic and political factors,” the SABC said.
Instead, SABC uses the services of debt collection agencies and attorneys to collect delinquent license fees. This process is less severe than the legal provision ”.
Plan to recoup license fees
The SABC also outlined its plans to recoup license fee revenue in South Africa, including new marketing campaigns.
He said that he continually seeks to charge TV license fees on a monthly basis despite all the challenges he faces.
Plans in place to minimize the shortfall in cash collections include marketing campaigns and pending fee settlement.
These include new marketing campaigns, developments in technology requirements, campaigns to increase debit orders and settlements of delinquent license fees.
The measures would be aimed at improving compliance with television license fee payments, which SABC recognized as its greatest obstacle to growth.
“Lack of compliance with the legislation remains the biggest impediment to successfully driving growth in the collection of television license fees,” SABC said.
The SABC has also previously considered raising license fees as a possible solution to the lack of revenue, but it made no mention of it in its report to parliament.
Currently, the price of a TV license is still listed as R265.
MyBroadband asked the SABC about their previous plans to increase license fees in South Africa, but did not respond at the time of publication.
SABC presentation
The full presentation of SABC is below.
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