The Current Status Of TV Licence In South Africa And The Rest Of The World + Other Matters

South Africans who watch video streaming services like Netflix or pay-TV services like DStv or StarSat and who don't even watch or use the services of the South African public broadcaster could be forced to pay a SABC TV licence fee like a compulsory "traffic fine" - even if they don't use a TV, the SABC or just watch content on devices like laptops and tablets.

This is the latest plan of the financially struggling South African public broadcaster to prop up its finances, with Pinky Kekana, South Africa's deputy communications minister, who told parliament's portfolio committee on communications on Tuesday morning that the SABC wants to broaden the definition of the existing mandatory SABC TV licence that is payable by people with a TV set.

There's about 27 other countries that still do TV licences followed by 25 countries that abolished it and make their revenue through commercial sales, advertising, tax and pay or free-to-air platforms (which is what SABC is proposing). Then there's 11 other countries that never had a TV licence some of them don't have a national broadcaster (e.g. SABC, BBC), some are funded by private companies (e.g. e.tv), some rely on advertising, grants and government funds.

MUST CARRY RULE
The SABC wants the government to remove the must carry clause on their channels since it benefits other platforms as they don't pay a cent for their channels.

SPORTS
SABC wants national sports to be available to them at a very affordable price.

If SABC wants to charge people TV licence they could have added it onto our taxes regardless most people using DStv or OpenView don't watch their channels since they lack redeeming quality. If the government does abolish the must-carry regulation it means all platforms will likely do away with SABC 1-3 or have less SABC channels on their platform.

I know most people don't watch their channels but for the people that rely on their channels, what are the chances that these platforms will indeed do away with SABC entirely. Knowing some providers they're likely to keep only 1 or 2 out of the 3 channels.

Read Also:
- SABC is still planning to launch SABC Education on DStv

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