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SABC expects a windfall following amendment of the Must Carry Regulations 2022

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The SABC has welcomed the amendment of the Must Carry Regulations 2022. The regulations now require subscription broadcasters to carry the public broadcasters’ channels subject to commercially negotiable terms.  

Until now, MultiChoice and other pay-tv operators have carried SABC channels free of charge.  

Under the new regulations, these operators will now have to negotiate the cost to carry these channels on their platforms.  

SABC General Manager for Regulatory Affairs, Philly Moilwa, says they are looking forward to negotiating in good faith with subscription broadcasters

“We couldn’t be able to leverage on the profits or the returns on our content and our channels. Therefore, this decision in terms of the new regulations does remove the hindrance that was there in the old regulations of 2008. It allows us to negotiates between the parties in terms of what we believe our channels are worth in terms of value and therefore come up with something that makes business sense to the SABC. Therefore, it’s true. This regulation will allow the SABC to inject a lot of capital in terms of its business. We are expecting a lot of hundreds of millions out of it.” 

SABC welcomes amendment to the Must Carry Regulations 2022: Philly Moilwa

Meanwhile, Director of Media Monitoring Africa William Bird has accused Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni of interfering with the SABC’s operations by trying to force the public broadcaster to comply with what she says.

Ntshavheni has threatened to withhold the release of the next financial assistance for the SABC’s turnaround strategy. This follows the SABC’s media statement on Friday that the public broadcaster was losing revenue due to the planned switch-off of all analogue transmitters at the end of the month to migrate to digital television.

Bird says they are consulting their lawyers in light of the Minister’s threats against the SABC for asserting its independence.

“She’s clearly very angry and upset about this. Because it’s clearly a reaction to that and her reactions I think smack of ministerial interference. In fact, we’re busy consulting our lawyers to have a look at that, because it’s a very real problem when your Minister, because you assert your independence, says ‘No, we’re gonna now withdraw our funding, we’ll withdraw these reports, you’re misrepresented this, you’ve misrepresented that.’

Full interview with William Bird:

 

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