Last week=D5s IBA report could lead to the closure of Bop Broadcasting=20 services, writes Neil Bierbaum Bop Broadcasting Corporation is to lose its television and radio services a=
a result of the Independent Broadcasting Authority report. BopBC=D5s=20 television and radio services will be closed if the IBA=D5s recommendations=
regarding the TBVC broadcasters are accepted by Parliament. The implications of the IBA report are that Bop TV, Mmabatho TV and=20 Radio Sunshine should be closed, Radio Mmabatho should be combined=20 with the SABC=D5s Radio Setswana service to serve the North West and=20 surrounding areas. Radio Bop should be sold to private interests. The corporation=D5s facilities are to be incorporated into the SABC along=
with those of the other TBVC broadcasters.The satellite uplink facilities a=
Bop will be used for the proposed SABC satellite service, which was=20 mooted in the IBA Report. An IBA spokesperson said that an international=20 news service was one possibility. It is envisaged that such a service would=
bring in additional revenue and enable South Africa to become an=20 international player. The Bop TV studios could be used as a regional broadcast centre for the=20 North West, as well as an overflow facility for SABC productions. It is=20 expected that much of the equipment will be sold off. Radio studios could=
be made available to community or commercial broadcasters who choose=20 to operate in that area. An amendment which will bring BopBC under the IBA=D5s jurisdiction has=20 been presented to the minister and is expected to meet with the Cabinet=D5s=
approval. The amendment is intended to facilitate the integration of all th=
former TBVC broadcasters into the SABC. =D2The amendment is not strictly=20 necessary,=D3 says ministry consultant Willy Currie. =D2It is just making t=
point absolutely clear in the event of a dispute.=D3 During the IBA hearings Bop proposed, in a document entitled Breaking=20 Barriers, that its facilities should be used to provide a national backbone= of=20 television programming into which the regions can insert their own=20 windows. However, the IBA was clearly not convinced by the financial=20 implications of the presentation. Although the North West government =D1 which claims to own the facilities=
=D1 and the management of Bop are expected to go along with the=20 proposals, there has been some criticism of the IBA decision. =D2We didn=D5=
expect everything in our proposal to be accepted,=D3 BopBC director-general=
Solomon Kotane said on Tuesday, =D2but we thought some wisdom would=20
=D2It seems like the SABC report has been endorsed without any changes.=20 The idea of windows in which the provinces get 30 minutes is not adequate=
provincial television. We will have the same monopoly and centralisation=20 of views. Community and commercial broadcasters will not provide=20 sufficient diversity of views. =D2The switch should not be in Auckland Park, but in each province, so that=
the regional broadcasters can cut in as and when they want to, according to=
how much programming they have available.=D3 =D3The IBA has has failed to make a clear statement on the need for regiona=
broadcasting identity,=D3 says Professor Graeme Addison, head of=20 communications at the University of the North West, who was appointed=20 by North West premier Popo Molefe to a technical committee on the future=20 of BopBC. =D2The SABC has shown that from the metropolitan centre it is=20 incapable of reflecting the interests of the regions. It will also mean tha=
capacity will not be built in the regions. Any region that has no capacity=
will not commit large resources to an hour a day of programming.=D3 Some commentators believe that the IBA has thrown in its lot with ANC=20 centrism to avoid a showdown. =D2The IBA has tended towards a centrist=20 policy,=D3 says Addison. It has also been mooted that certain camps within=
the ANC fear that independent regional broadcasting might be usurped by=20 regional governments in certain regions. However, Currie stated that, =D2Th=
Public Broadcasting Services Bill, which arose out of the colloquium on=20 regional broadcasting, set down standards for regional public broadcasting=
services; the main one being that it must have a board set up according to=
some formula which would prevent any partisan influence.=D3 According to=20 the report, there is to be a controlling body which will determine the=20 principles and structures of regional public service broadcasting. Others believe that the problems for BopBC began when Bop relinquished=20 its transponder space on Intelsat 704 to join MultiChoice on the then- unlaunched Pas-4. If Bop had secured other satellite programming to=20 package alongside its TV station on Intelsat 704, it would have been=20 broadcasting by satellite to the whole of South Africa and would have been=
financially viable and operationally independent. If that had been the case=
the IBA might have recommended that Bop be privatised, an idea which=20 had found agreement in certain influential circles even before the IBA=20 came into being. However, deals were struck which favoured M-Net and ultimately led to=20 the demise of the homeland broadcaster.