Communications minister Solly Malatsi said on Tuesday that he has intervened in the protracted fight between the SABC and Sentech to ensure millions of South Africans are not disconnected from the public broadcaster’s channels.
In a statement, the minister claimed that three million South Africans were “at risk of being cut off from news and entertainment” if Sentech, a state-owned broadcasting signal distributor, had gone ahead with a plan to switch off transmitters due to non-payment by the SABC.
The two companies have been at loggerheads for years over the fees Sentech charges the SABC to carry its signals. The SABC has described the fees as far too high — and the financially constrained broadcaster hasn’t been paying its bills.
According to Malatsi, the transmitters that would have been shut down cover mainly rural areas and smaller towns.
“The agreement initiated by the minister between the senior leadership of the SABC and Sentech … is that the latter will not switch off the public broadcaster for at least the next two months while we are exploring options to have a long-term sustainability model for the SABC,” he said in the statement.
“The options include national treasury’s decision on the application by the SABC to reclassify its grant, which would allow for part of its allocation to be used to pay Sentech for signal distribution services.
“While the SABC has been making steady progress towards improving its financial standing, the fact is that it has not been able to fully pay Sentech for services rendered. At the same time, Sentech is at risk of running out of cash due to the non-payment, a risk that may even affect other broadcasters,” Malatsi said.
‘Complexities’
“As we grapple with the complexities of developing a long-term funding model for the SABC, the public broadcaster also has a responsibility to raise revenue to maintain its operational costs,” he added.
In a recent interview with the TechCentral Show – which will be published this week – Malatsi indicated that the fractious relationship between the SABC and Sentech was an “opportunity cost” given that funds spent on legal fees by the two state-owned companies could be redirected to helping both firms function better.
Read: Top court orders Hlaudi Motsoeneng to pay back SABC millions
Malatsi said a mediation process between the SABC and Sentech, attempting to find a way through an impasse over broadcasting signal distribution fees charged to the former by the latter, was ready to begin following the appointment of a mediator.
“For two entities that are under one department to be involved in a litigious battle just doesn’t sound right,” Malatsi told TechCentral. “To have a protracted legal deadlock over this is not in the best interest of anyone.”
The SABC is understood to owe Sentech more than R1-billion in signal carriage fees. The broadcaster has labelled the fees as “monopoly pricing”.
Malatsi said there was still a need for a public broadcaster in South Africa, but finding the right funding model to make it sustainable was key to its survival. He said the SABC could not be “solely dependent” on the fiscus and had to find a way to be competitive in a “tough” and “constantly changing” broadcasting market. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media