Communications minister Solly Malatsi will appoint an impartial mediator to facilitate negotiations between the SABC and Sentech over the previous’s R1-billion debt to the latter for sign carriage.
“Upon taking workplace, the present minister emphasised the necessity to get the tariff dispute resolved between the 2 entities,” the communications division mentioned in a presentation filed in parliament in late August and made out there through the Parliamentary Monitoring Group this week.
“A pronouncement was made within the price range speech that the division will make use of … an impartial mediator… The phrases of reference have since been revised in session with the 2 entities. As soon as finalised, the division will embark on a course of to nominate the mediator,” the presentation to the portfolio committee on communications & digital applied sciences mentioned.
The state-owned entities have been embroiled in a battle relating to sign distribution charges since at the very least 2021, with the SABC accusing Sentech of “monopoly pricing” for carrying its terrestrial broadcasting alerts to South African tv viewers. The matter was taken to the Competitors Fee, which – after a two-year investigation – concluded that Sentech’s pricing was by no means unfair.
“The fee didn’t discover any proof that helps the view that the tariffs charged by Sentech for its transmission and distribution companies are in contravention of part 8(1)(a) of the [Competition Act]. Additional, the fee discovered that Sentech didn’t impose important tariff will increase over the monetary interval between 2018 and 2021. Sentech’s tariff will increase over the related interval have been consistent with inflation. As well as, the evaluation revealed that Sentech was not deriving any extreme income over the monetary interval between 2017 to 2021,” the Competitors Fee mentioned in its findings.
Solely recreation on the town
However business consultants have known as these findings into query, noting that the sign distribution charges in areas the place Sentech doesn’t have a monopoly – akin to satellite tv for pc – are considerably decrease than for terrestrial distribution, the place Sentech is the one recreation on the town.
Sentech was separated from the SABC in 1996, the concept being that it will grow to be a service supplier not solely to the general public broadcaster however to business tv and radio stations throughout the nation, but it’s nonetheless reliant on the SABC for nearly half its income.
Learn: A nasty sign at Sentech (paywall)
Based on the communications division’s presentation to parliament, the SABC’s historic debt to Sentech was about R1-billion on the finish of March 2024, with the general public broadcaster unable to service month-to-month repayments of about R55-million, excluding VAT.
Negotiations are mentioned to be “at loggerheads”, with neither occasion prepared to just accept concessions introduced ahead by the opposite, based on the division’s presentation. The danger for the SABC is that Sentech would possibly shut off its transmitters, leaving the broadcaster unable to achieve its audiences throughout the nation.
The communications division mentioned a transmitter shutoff would lead to viewers and income losses for the SABC as audiences would migrate to competitor platforms. The transfer would additionally hurt authorities’s common service targets, given that almost all of these affected could be audiences outdoors the main metropolitan areas.
“The debt owed to Sentech by the SABC is a fabric danger for continuity of broadcast companies. Sentech funds are significantly affected, which have an effect on their going concern standing,” the division mentioned in its presentation. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
