{"id":7801,"date":"2021-06-28T14:31:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/sabc\/?p=7801"},"modified":"2021-06-28T14:31:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T14:31:51","slug":"media-statement-sabc-welcomes-change-to-unfair-must-carry-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabc.co.za\/sabc\/media-statement-sabc-welcomes-change-to-unfair-must-carry-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"MEDIA STATEMENT | SABC WELCOMES CHANGE TO UNFAIR MUST CARRY REGULATIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johannesburg \u2013 Monday, 28 June 2021 \u2013<\/strong> At public hearings held by ICASA today, the SABC welcomed draft regulations requiring that Multichoice and other pay-TV operators may only carry SABC channels \u201csubject to commercially negotiable terms\u201d.
\nLeading the SABC team, GCEO Madoda Mxakwe said:
\n\u201cThis Must Carry regulatory review process is vitally important not only because our industry has fundamentally changed in the last 13 years but also because ICASA is seeking to correct \u2018a regulatory wrong\u2019 first made in 2008.\u201d
\nIn 2008 ICASA\u2019s Must Carry regulations had left out the phrase \u201csubject to commercially negotiable terms\u201d, without any justification for deviating from the language of the statute. The regulations were never changed and have required the public broadcaster to provide its three expensively produced channels to pay-TV operators for free for the last 13 years.
\nICASA\u2019s current draft regulations have finally corrected this omission and allow the SABC to exercise its statutory right to commercially negotiate carriage fees for its channels.
\nThe SABC committed to ICASA that universal access remained an ongoing public mandate requirement for the public broadcaster. Mxakwe noted that the three SABC channels are now simultaneously accessible on several free, non-subscription \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0platforms. These include satellite via Openview and\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sentech, on\u00a0 DTT via Sentech and streaming via TelkomOne, Viu and others.
\nMxakwe said:
\n\u201cThe SABC regards its Universal Access obligations as an ongoing, sacred and non-negotiable public mandate that does not end simply because it may have been achieved on a multiplatform basis\u201d.
\n\u201cIt is therefore unfortunate that Multichoice has sought to portray SABC\u2019s statutory right to have the law correctly applied as having a \u2018purely commercial\u2019 motivation and that SABC wants to \u2018sidestep its public broadcasting mandate in favour of its financial interests\u2019. This is an extraordinary, unsubstantiated and untrue claim. The public broadcaster is simply seeking to exercise a legitimate statutory right to negotiate carriage fees which has been denied to it for 13 years\u201d.
\nMultichoice had previously claimed that the \u201cpurpose of Must Carry is not to create a revenue stream for SABC\u201d. Mxakwe responded that Multichoice had ignored the language of the legislation which clearly envisaged commercial negotiations.
\n\u201cWe ask the Authority today – if there is to be no revenue from the carriage of SABC channels, what would be the purpose of commercial negotiations?\u201d
\nThat said, the SABC\u2019s over-dependence on commercial revenue is no secret and the public broadcaster has made submissions to government on increasing government grants and introducing a public broadcasting household levy. But this dependence on commercial revenue is unlikely to change anytime soon.
\nMxakwe said:
\n\u201cThe SABC cannot sit on its hands and fail to protect the interest of the Corporation while lengthy policy and regulatory processes unfold. The Board and management of the SABC have a fiduciary duty to ensure that the long-term interests of the Corporation are protected. This includes the lawful exercise of the SABC\u2019s commercial rights\u201d.
\nThe SABC presentation to ICASA demonstrated that, in terms of overall audience numbers as at March 2021, twenty of the top thirty most-watched programmes on DStv were SABC programmes. While the presence of SABC channels on the DStv platform were often not the primary reason for subscriber take-up, Mxakwe said it was clear that:<\/p>\n