The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is proposing new changes to the South African TV licence system. The new changes are set to help improve the current financial issues surrounding the organization. One of these changes is the proposition that Netflix, Multichoice and other video-on-demand services collect TV licence fees on their behalf. Another is the proposition that SABC would charge laptop, smartphone and tablet users a TV licence fee for consuming media on the devices. Even if this media is not SABC content.
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The first regulation the SABC wants to impose is that all streaming services in SA, and the ones available to the country, should add a surcharge onto their subscription which makes up a portion of the TV licence. This way, Netflix, Multichoice and other streaming services would collect fees from subscribers which will go to the organization. In addition, SABC aims to start charging users a licence fee for using other gadgets such as laptops, smartphones and tablets.
Basically, everyone in SA will need to start paying a TV licence fee. My Broadband reports;
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#D7FF33″ class=”” size=”21″]“How do we, through Icasa ,make sure that they too are able to assist us to collect TV licences but we are not only limiting it to TV? We also have other platforms where people consume content and in all of those areas that is where we should look at how we are able to get SABC licence fees from those gadgets,” .[/perfectpullquote]
In short, if the SABC get away with implementing these new regulations in SA, users will have to pay extra fees on top of their subscriptions. In addition, users will most likely have to pay for a fee on top of their new gadgets too. Perhaps even apply for a SABC TV licence for their new device which has a display. Of course, these proposals are still in a very early phase. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before something like this gets put into place.
Not to mention South Africans won’t stand for this in the first place. Let’s not forget that the SABC and its financial woes are due to the mismanagement of funds. ie corruption. Let’s hope these crazy South African TV licence proposals don’t force us to pay for the bad management that has taken place in the organization for years.
