TV license prices – South Africa vs the world

Despite being hated by many, South Africa’s television license fee is among the cheapest of its kind in the world.

The local television license fee recently came into the spotlight after reports that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) was pushing for stricter enforcement of payments and working on regulations that would allow additional avenues of collection.

Among these proposals, the station wants to force other service providers like Netflix and MultiChoice to collect TV license fees on your behalf.

It also seeks to broaden the definition of a television to include streaming-capable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes, meaning that the owners of these products would have to purchase and pay for a television license.

This is because an increasing number of television licensees do not pay their fees.

In its annual report for fiscal year 2019, the SABC said it only collected payments from 2.9 million of the 9.4 million licensees in its database.

Currently, the SABC charges an annual fee of R265 for this license, with the option to spread the renewal fees over 12 monthly installments of R28 each for a total payment of R317.

The evolution of the broadcasting industry has led many South African households to switch to private entertainment providers such as pay TV station DStv and streaming service Netflix.

Since many of these viewers may no longer use their televisions to watch SABC content, analysts and experts have called for the current system to be removed or revamped, often labeling it as “archaic.”

However, it should be noted that there are numerous countries around the world that still charge a fee for equipment capable of receiving television broadcast signals.

the Museum of Broadcasting Communications explains that television licenses have three main purposes:

• It allocates transmission costs directly to its consumers, who;
• creates a sense of mutual and reciprocal responsibility between announcers and audience members who ultimately;
• frees broadcasters from the control and influence of governments or advertisers.

According to the Museum, around two-thirds of European countries and half of Asian and African governments used television licenses to finance public broadcasting in 2013.

More and less expensive countries

While several of these governments have abolished the practice, there are still at least 29 known countries around the world that charge some type of television license fee.

Of those that still charge discreet TV license fees, Switzerland is the most expensive with an annual price of 365 Swiss francs, or around R6,414. This is more than 24 times more than the SABC rate.

Austria ranks second most expensive, with television license fees ranging from € 251.16 (R4,737) to € 320.76 (R6,050), depending on the state in which the licensee resides.

This is independent of an additional radio license fee, which can vary between € 70.80 and € 90.00.

The rest of the five most expensive countries comprise Denmark (R4,868), Germany (R3,961) and the United Kingdom (R3,393).

South Africa has the most expensive TV license fee of the African countries included in our comparison.

Namibia’s northwestern neighbors charge 204 Namibian dollars (R220) per year, while Eswatini (Swaziland) has a total annual fee of 180 Swaziland lilangeli (R178).

Ghana’s annual television license ranges from 36 to 60 Ghana Cedi (R99 to R161).

The chart below shows a comparison of known annual TV license fees for various countries, ordered from highest to lowest cost. The South African fare is indicated in black.

Comparison of annual TV license fees

Breakdown of licensing regimes

While South Africa and the countries mentioned above charge discrete television license fees, other governments have included the cost as part of certain taxes or as an additional tax on electricity or telephone bills.

These include Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, and Norway.

Notable countries that do not currently require a television license include the US, Canada, India, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

The table below shows the countries that are known to charge a television license fee, those that have abolished television licenses, and those that have never applied television license fees.

Comparing content

While it is good news that South Africa television licenses are very affordable compared to other countries, it should be noted that the variety and quality of content will vary greatly between different countries.

Although SABC’s locally produced television shows, soap operas and newsletters remain very popular with the general population, it faces stiff competition from Netflix, especially in the middle class and more affluent markets.

SABC also offers only three channels for free-to-air national broadcasting, which is meager compared to a broadcaster like the UK’s BBC, which offers 10 national channels, plus regional TV programming, and more than 40 radio stations. .

Its flagship channel BBC One is the second most watched television channel in the UK, while its other channels also cover significantly more sports, news and entertainment than SABC.

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