SABC production freeze angers TVIEC

The TVIEC says that as per the SABC's 2008 Request for Proposals (RFPs) from the independent production sector, “we have been informed that only 12 out of the 47 productions due to have been incepted in April 2009 will be going ahead this year. The balance will be delayed or cancelled”. It adds that there will be no 2009 RFPs for production in 2010 and, moreover, numerous existing/renewable contracts have been postponed or deferred.

The coalition says that this appears to be the turn-around plan that has been proposed to the interim board. It says that if the broadcaster implements the plan, rather than creating a viable new business plan, it will save the SABC an estimated R500 million over the next year - at the expense of the production sector.

“The independent production sector will end up taking the hit for the broadcaster's internal mismanagement. While the SABC will appear to have a quick turn-around, the impact has deep consequences that the industry, viewers, and the next board will have to face:

• Companies will close and many will find themselves in debt and potentially liquidated as they had geared for the anticipated annual work flow. Only a very few big production companies with long running soaps will be able to survive.
  
• The substantial investment made by SABC in training and developing new entrants in the industry will be lost - people will have to find other employment.
  
• Key creative talent will migrate and be lost. This is no small issue - producers, writers and directors take years to develop and are pivotal to production success.
  
• Suppliers and facilities will be forced to sell off equipment - most likely outside of the country - which will leave the local industry with an increasingly smaller pool of suppliers, pushing up prices etcetera.
  
• The SABC will enter into a schedule of repeats (which has already started) even in prime time slots, thus directly affecting audiences and very likely future revenue. As viewers decrease, so do advertising rates. Surely this must also have serious effect on the SABC meeting its ICASA requirements - but no reliable quota statistics are forthcoming from either the broadcaster or the regulator. Furthermore, the TVIEC is concerned about how and when repeat fees will be paid - given the fact that final payments have still not been made on some of the properties that are now going to be repeated!
  
• What happens to the SABC staff employed to commission, oversee and work on the many productions that will be cancelled and deferred? Will they be retrenched as part of the cost saving exercise too?”

The coalition also says the SABC intends to “bulk commission” local programming to further reduce costs.

Bulk commissioning is ‘dangerous'

“While we can see that this may provide some savings … it will only serve to grow a handful of production companies that have capacity to manage bulk. These are mainly established facility owner/producer companies and will most likely advantage the already advantaged. We believe this goes against the very spirit of the SABC's commitment to diversity and developing the industry - as well as ICASA's recommendations.”

The TVIEC says that bulk commissioning is “a dangerous notion of cost savings” because it cannot be applied to all genres, for example drama or documentaries. That means it will begin to shape the type of content the SABC airs - namely cheap studio-based productions.

“It is also open to abuse and inappropriate commissioning” says the coalition, which is also concerned that there are already discussions on bulk commissioning taking place with large facility/producer companies, and that open and fair tender will be bypassed.

“We believe that an attempt to turn the SABC around by cutting their key product - programming - will cause irreparable damage to the independent production sector and to the SABC's credibility. In our view this can be likened to an airline making a saving by buying less fuel. Cost savings must be made from areas of fat or that are non-core to the SABC's business,” says the TVIEC, adding that they strongly oppose this process.

Sell off non-core

The TVIEC says the SABC should rather be looking at a combination of selling off non-core assets, downscaling internal units that have been overstaffed, cutting back on unnecessary spending in non-program areas and applying for funding in the form of a bail-out or a loan whilst implementing long term-cost savings within its business models.

“The TVIEC will continue to campaign. We will lobby all stakeholders and mobilize public opinion for a short term policy intervention which will require Treasury to allocate additional budget to the SABC in 2009 so that its anticipated schedule of local content can be produced.”

TV producer starts hunger strike to protest SABC ‘callousness'

Meanwhile, local television producer Michael Lee is on the fourth day of a hunger strike against what he terms the “callousness” of the SABC. Lee, 41, a board member of the South African Screen Federation (SASFED) has been active in the current campaign by the TVIEC to have the TV industry treated professionally by the national broadcaster. He is also currently in production of a film about 30 years of film in South Africa entitled State of Emergency.

Lee says the objective of his hunger strike is to raise awareness of the abuse being dished out by fat cats against the hard-working and creative TV industry. He said today, Friday 14 August, that he intends to fast until the SABC re-implements the RFPs that were promised in November 2009, as well as paying all the unpaid bills, restoring contracts that have been postponed... or until he gets too hungry.

"But the hunger is not bad, not bad at all. Yet." said Lee.