ICASA ‘must carry' hearings begin

“While we fully support the ‘must carry' regulations to assist the SABC achieve its mandate of universal access obligations, we are seeking clarifications as to how this process will be implemented,” Grant Edmonds, ODM's legal adviser told the ICASA committee chaired by councillor Robert Nkuna, in charge of markets and competition.

“We must avoid that this process becomes a financial burden for subscription TV operators and turns out to be an undue commercial exploitation.”

Edmonds hinted that ODM might carry SABC1, 2, 4 and 5 – when these last two become available – because these are of a public nature, but not SABC3 as this is a commercial channel and needs to be dealt with as a separate case.

Dimitri Martinis, of the ODM's Regulatory Affairs, said categorically that what ODM wants is to help the SABC fulfill its mandate, but it is not here to sell its programmes, which is the SABC's own job.

Special arrangement

Currently, MultiChoice carries e.tv programmes and all SABC channels under a ‘special' arrangement.

But Edmonds told the panel that this arrangement should not be used as a benchmark in the implementation of the current ‘must carry' obligations for all subscription TV operators, as it was put in place prior to the licensing of commercial subscription broadcasting services and the impending of promulgations of ‘must carry' regulations.

e.tv/e.Sat COO Bronwyn Keene-Young argued that since e.tv's only source of revenue is advertising, for which it is competing with SABC, e.tv should be afforded ‘must carry' status in the regulations.

“To do otherwise would be prejudicial to e.tv, particularly if SABC3 is given such status,” Keene-Young stated.

‘SABC is protected'

But e.tv was emphatically told by panel member Thato Mahapa that there is a provision within the EC Act and Broadcasting Act that ‘protects' the SABC in this regard, and not other entity.

To some extent, Mahapa's statement might reinforce many industry watchers' opinion that the playing field is not levelled as one player holds too much commercial power over others.

It is too early to tell whether the newcomers will form a united front to persuade the authority that the time has come to amend the legislation in order to decentralise that power.

Keene-Young added: “Free carriage channels, which includes e.tv, SABC1, 2 and 3, should have a significant public service mandate to be determined based on the percentage of local content provided by the channel with a minimum of 35% over the performance period, and have a reciprocal must-offer obligation.

Cost of carriage

“Carriage at cost needs to be transparent and equitable, apply to all terrestrial free-to-air channels which do not meet the free carriage requirements, and such channels would have to pay actual costs to be carried on the platform.”

ODM suggested that the net cost of carriage should be passed onto the subscribers, who should not be further burdened with the cost of channels which they have already contributed towards through their TV licence.

WoWtv was represented at the hearings by its CEO Nontokozo Mangquku and CFO Luyanda Mangquku.

The hearings continue today, Wednesday 12 December, a D-Day for SABC, Telkom Media and MultiChoice, which are expected to present their cases before the eight-member ICASA committee.