The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will pay back the entirety of its government guaranteed loan in the next four months, communications minister Dina Pule said in her budget vote speech.
“The public broadcaster has accelerated the repayment of its government-guaranteed loan while contributing to bring events of national importance to the homes of all South Africans. The SABC plans to pay the outstanding balance of ZAR222 million (US$23.2 million) within four months,” said Pule.
However, she said amendments were needed to the Broadcasting Act to ensure the SABC was properly governed.
“We are concerned about governance arrangements at the SABC. In this regard I will be consulting with the Portfolio Committee on Communications to explore an urgent review and amendment to the Broadcasting Act,” she said.
The minister also turned her intention to the digital migration process, saying the SABC is able to migrate its three existing channels to the DTT platform immediately and introduce additional channels in due time.
“In June 2013, we shall launch the STB (Set-Top Box) compliance lap in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). We have taken a decision to review the policy on the STB control system as one way of fast tracking the rollout of Digital Terrestrial Television to make this system non-mandatory,” said Pule.
“The DTT transmission network roll out target of 84 per cent population coverage via terrestrial transmitters will be reached by December 2013. Sentech will also launch a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service later this year.”
DTT transmission will reportedly provide radio and television coverage to areas without DTT signal, including the area where the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is located.
“With regards to DTT awareness, we shall intensify the implementation of our communications campaigns to inform and educate the public about the need for DTT,” said Pule.
“As part of our efforts to increase competition in the broadcasting area, I intend on issuing a policy directive in the second quarter of 2013/2014, to ICASA to issue a regulation on market definition for wholesale access to premium TV content to address market competition.”
