Senior ANC MP Khusela Sangoni Diko has referred to as for the pressing publication of a white paper on audio and audiovisual media companies to mitigate the detrimental influence of streaming companies on South African broadcasters, together with the SABC.
Diko, who chairs parliament’s portfolio committee on communications & digital applied sciences, made the remarks in a press release following the publication on Monday of the Competitors Fee’s provisional report on media and digital platforms. Publication of the report adopted a 16-month inquiry into the connection between native information media and multinational digital platform corporations similar to Google and Meta.
Within the report, the fee estimated that Google made between R1.1-billion and R1.5-billion in income by way of displaying content material created by native information media in 2023. Google has disputed the numbers.
Nonetheless, the fee mentioned, the income break up between native media and Google is skewed in favour of the search large. The fee proposed in its report, which is provisional, that Google pay between R300-million and R500-million/12 months over three to 5 years to native media and implement different initiatives to “rectify the imbalance in shared worth”.
In her assertion, Diko likened the detrimental impact the fee alleged multinational platforms have had on the native information business to the impact that streamers like Netflix have had on the SABC. She mentioned the suggestions made by the fee concerning Google ought to function a deterrent to different multinationals by displaying {that a} lack of direct regulation “is just not a licence for unscrupulous enterprise practices”.
Urgency
“For a really very long time, over-the-top (OTT) digital platforms exploited the regulatory hole within the sector to the detriment of the general public broadcaster, the SABC, which operates below stringent laws. We additional welcome the advice that media homes be remunerated for the content material they produce that will get to be exploited by OTT and digital platforms,” mentioned Diko.
Diko mentioned there’s a want for urgency in taking ahead the long-delayed audio and audiovisual companies white paper. Now apparently referred to as the white paper on audio and audiovisual media companies and on-line content material security – based on Diko’s assertion – the coverage paper, which is a prelude to the event of a invoice, is supposed to replace South Africa’s broadcasting laws to account for modifications caused by developments in digital applied sciences, together with the proliferation of streaming companies.
Learn: You could quickly want a TV licence to look at Netflix
In response to a draft white paper printed in August 2023, income thresholds shall be used to find out the kind of license worldwide corporations which might be actively focusing on South African audiences and “extracting income” might want to apply for – every license kind bestows a unique set of obligations on licensees.
An interdepartmental activity workforce shall be set as much as report back to the minister on mechanisms to make sure compliance by worldwide corporations that meet the licensing standards however wouldn’t have a bodily enterprise premises in South Africa and probably refuse to use for a licence, mentioned the doc.
Central to those developments is the disaster confronted by the SABC, with its funding mannequin on the centre of a fractious battle between the ANC and its authorities of nationwide unity accomplice, the Democratic Alliance. Communications minister and DA MP Solly Malatsi withdrew the invoice from parliament final November, arguing that the draft laws in its present kind failed to handle points with the general public broadcaster’s funding mannequin.
The transfer made Malatsi the topic of a lot vitriol from various ANC MPs, together with his personal deputy, Mondli Gungubele, minister within the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and Diko. Diko responded by labelling Malatsi’s transfer as “catastrophic” for the SABC, accusing the minister of “sounding the dying knell” for the general public broadcaster.
Diko’s suggestion that streaming companies ought to compensate the SABC for the worth they allegedly extract from the native broadcasting business is one in all many concepts which have been proposed in efforts to rescue the embattled broadcaster.
Learn: South Africa nonetheless eager to amend broadcast possession guidelines
In a presentation to parliament’s portfolio committee final November, SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli tabled a proposal for a “device-independent levy” that may require enlisting the South African Income Service and MultiChoice Group for assortment. Additionally proposed was stopping customers that don’t maintain a sound TV licence from subscribing to streaming companies like Netflix and even DStv. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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