South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC says it has no funds to adequately cover an upcoming local government election. The state’s Treasury has turned down a request from SABC for 120 million Rand (€6.2m) for dedicated funding. SABC is appealing to South African parliament’s Communications Committee to intervene. “Without funding, the SABC does not have the […]
South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC reported greater losses for 2025, and is complaining about government’s delay in creating a new funding model. According to SABC’s annual report, losses for the year rose by 28 per cent to R253-million (€12.6m), compared with the R198-million loss it reported in 2024. “It has been clear for some time […]
South Africa Broadcasting has been under financial pressures and severe monetary constraints for some years. Local reports say that pressure is mounting on communications minister Solly Malatsi to act to rescue the SABC as it struggles to pay its escalating bills. September 8th saw reports that State-owned signal distributor Sentech, whose primary client is SABC, […]
South Africa’s department of communications & digital technologies has stepped in with an effort to solve the long-running dispute between public broadcaster SAB and transmission company Sentech. The move has seen the government publish a tender document in an attempt to solve the dilemma between two state-backed entities. “There has been an ongoing tariffs dispute […]
South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC is asking the nation’s government to alter how the broadcasting TV Licence is structured. In essence, it wants to absorb the VAT element, and keeping the 15 per cent for itself, and not handing over the sum to the nation’s treasury. SABC is cash-strapped. Speaking in Parliament SABC CEO Nomsa […]
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has announced that SABC Plus, its OTT streaming platform, has reached 1 million registered users since its relaunch in July 2024. The surge in registrations has been largely attributed to live sports broadcasts, which have regularly attracted over 60,000 new users per major game. Additionally, the recent #SwitchToStream campaign […]
A carriage agreement between South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC and pay-TV operator MultiChoice struck in 2013 and which saw MultiChoice carry SABC’s channels on its system has emerged from a legal problem. South Africa’s Competition Tribunal on April 14th said it had dismissed an “exception application” brought by MultiChoice over a channel-supply agreement with the […]
A proposed restructuring of South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC by the country’s Communications & Digital Technology parliamentary committee has been stopped by the nation’s Communications minister Solly Malatsi. The move has led to criticism that the proposal will “sound the death knell” for the broadcaster. SABC is widely understood to be near-bankruptcy. The complaints are […]
South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC has added 500,000 new registered users to its free SABC+ streaming service in three months. The revamped service was launched on July 3rd offers ‘catch-up’ content, VoD and live streaming of SABC’s television and radio channels. SABC said a combination of programming including the Paris summer Olympic Games, the Cote […]
South Africa’s communications minister Solly Malatsi has intervened in the increasingly bitter row between South African public broadcaster SABC and the nation’s broadcasting transmission company, Sentech. SABC is objecting to the fees Sentech is levying to carry the broadcaster’s signals across the country. In his statement, Malatsi claimed that 3 million South Africans were “at […]