The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has said that the government’s policy prevents it from competing with streaming services such as Netflix and Showmax, according to a report by the City Press.
In a presentation which was meant to be discussed with parliament’s portfolio committee earlier this year, the SABC voiced its frustration with policies and regulations that tied its future growth to the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) migration project.
The public broadcaster said that it operated in a highly regulated environment and that existing policies have had a negative effect on its business model.
The Broadcast Digital Migration Policy of 2008 compels the SABC to use 84% of DTT, which the company said results in an environment that is “grossly anti-competitive”.
“Our competitors can scale and reach a larger audience at substantially lower distribution costs and time to market,” the SABC said.
“The barriers for entry are greatly reduced and more global and local OTT players are entering a less regulated environment.”
Major global and local OTT players in South Africa include Netflix and Showmax, both of which have grown significantly as adoption on Internet streaming services continues to rise.
This plea echoes the SABC’s complaint around local policy which it voiced last year when it said that it wanted to launch a streaming service to compete with Netflix and Showmax.
The broadcaster said at the time that it aimed to put all of its content on its own streaming service, adding that it had developed an integrated OTT strategy with the goal of developing or acquiring its own OTT streaming platform.
“This will allow the SABC to control its own destiny into the future,” the SABC said.
At the time, the company said that the transition to OTT streaming and digital broadcasting was key to its survival and financial recovery.
Digital migration delays
South Africa’s transition to DTT has been a dismal and costly affair, characterised by the government’s ineptitude and inability to meet multiple deadlines.
Transitioning to this new technology would free up valuable frequency spectrum in the lower ranges, which would enable more efficient broadband growth in South Africa.
Switching analogue television broadcasts to digital signals would free up spectrum and allow mobile operators and other service providers to deliver better and more affordable broadband connectivity in these bands.
The first deadline for the migration from analogue to digital television in South Africa was set for 1 November 2008.
More than a decade later, however, the government has still not completed this objective and has continued to delay this deadline.
Cabinet has now approved 2021 to be the analogue switch-off date, but it remains to be seen if it is able to follow through and complete migration by the end of next year.
The Department of Communications acknowledged the delay when it announced this latest deadline in February 2020.
“Progress towards finalising the BDM programme has been very slow, primarily due to the poor pace of household migration to digital platforms,” the department said.
“Of the total 1.5 million consignments ordered, 1.39 million decoders have been delivered to SAPO warehouses with the aerial and satellite dishes delivery completed.”
The next step for spectrum allocation
In May, ICASA published its Final Radio Frequency Spectrum Assignment Plan (RSFAP), which covers the frequency band spanning 470MHz to 694MHz.
ICASA said this will enable the immediate availability of the 470MHz to 694MHz band for Digital Terrestrial Television (DDT) when analogue TV is switched off.
It said this process will also assist in the clearing of the IMT700 and IMT800 high-demand spectrum bands – bands that will be allocated for mobile broadband – sooner than had been anticipated.
This is because the restacking process of DTT services which are currently operating in the frequency bands spanning 694MHz to 862MHz will allow these DTT services to operate in the 470MHz to 694MHz range instead.
The authority has since stated that it will publish the long-awaited Invitation to Apply for high demand spectrum no later than 30 September 2020.
Since the spectrum is expected to be hotly contested, it is expected that an auction will be used to determine how the spectrum is ultimately assigned.
ICASA has said that the auction will be completed no later than 31 March 2021.
