Cape Town TV's wings clipped by ICASA?

To emulate Soweto TV, which runs on a seven-year licence, CTV applied for a class licence to enable it to continue broadcasting on a more sustainable basis. And after intense discussions with senior ICASA management, the station was given assurances that everything will be fine.

ICASA moratorium

"But then, we were told later that our application will not be considered on the grounds that the regulator had instituted a moratorium on the granting of broadcast licences to community TV stations," CTV manager Karen Thorne told Bizcommunity.com yesterday.

ICASA's moratorium was issued as a result of a shortage of frequencies in SA - a situation that will only be solved once the country migrates to digital broadcasting.

However, ICASA's technology and engineering department later changed the tune, reassuring CTV that the problem has been 'fixed'.

Week of uncertainty

Nevertheless, the Western Cape-based community station faces a week of uncertainty, as the ICASA Council will sit down on Tuesday to decide whether the station should continue or cease its broadcasting operations.

SOS Support Public Broadcasting spokesperson Kate Skinner said today her organisation is planning to meet with ICASA urgently to discuss the CTV matter.

According to Thorne, the confusion lies with different people having different interpretations of the moratorium. "Some people believe the moratorium is only for new stations, while others said it also applies to existing stations," she explained.

"So there appears to be no good reason why ICASA should refuse CTV a license based on frequency issues, which the moratorium was expressly designed to address.

Favouritism and injustice

Furthermore, Thorne alleges that some broadcasting licences have been granted to other community television initiatives amid the moratorium. If Thorne's claim proves to be true, critics of ICASA who accuse the regulator of favouritism and injustice will have their case validly strengthened.

According to Thorne, this will constitute an unfair practice, which renders the moratorium legally invalid.

The cash-strapped CTV, which is struggling to stay on air due to higher signal distribution costs and lack of adequate support from the state and private sector, has nevertheless paid about R700 000 to Sentech over the past two years.

But, it still owes more. Sentech is constantly threatening the station with disconnection if it does not come up with the money anytime soon.

ICASA - 'weak and shy boy'

While ICASA has been likened to a 'weak and shy boy' for failing to carry out its mandate in an efficient manner as required by the law, Sentech has been vilified for forcing non-profit community broadcasters to pay the same signal distribution tariffs as commercial and public service broadcasters.

Thorne said: "This situation persists because ICASA has not carried out an inquiry into transmission tariffs levied by the national signal distributor, Sentech, as it was mandated to do by the Broadcasting Act of 1999. Community broadcasters continue to bear the burden of this omission."

CTV broadcasts 24 hours a day to a monthly audience of 1.3 million people, and its turnover is said to have more than doubled for the past two years.

ICASA was not available for comment.