Eight new radio stations and a new television channel are some of the changes taking place in South Africa’s media industry, writes IBA councillor John Matisonn
AROUND September next year, South Africa will have a newly licenced national television channel that will compete head- to-head with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for viewers and will be available without decoders, subscription or licence fees to most South Africans with television sets.
Between now and then – starting at hearings in Cape Town on November 12 for private radio stations – the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) will licence eight new private radio stations, besides the six that were privatised in September, starting with three in Cape Town, one in Durban and four in Gauteng.
At the same time, the IBA is preparing for the next round of private radio licences, in the secondary markets, for the early part of next year. Anyone who wants the IBA to consider licencing a private radio station in areas outside of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, should get an “Expression of Interest Form” and fill it in by December 1.
Based on these expressions of interest, the IBA will publish a list of towns where the next round of radio licence hearings will be held. These could include Port Elizabeth, East London, Pretoria, Pietersburg, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg.
This process costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. Neither does it commit the IBA. But it does give the IBA a base to determine where the next most urgent cases are for the next round of licencing.
Cost structure of radio allows for lighter regulation of programming because the listener will have considerable choice across the stations.
In the interim, the IBA is ready to hold hearings to determine a new Capital Radio owner as soon as it receives applications. (It is understood that the IBA can licence Capital Radio despite reports that it will be closed down.
The regulator is believed to be ready and willing to issue a licence to a successful applicant, but it depends on whether Capital Radio’s owner, the Ministry of Telecommunications, decides if it is going to sell off the radio station’s assets and consider the potential offers from interested parties.)
So there will be much happening in broadcasting during the next 12 months. Hot competition for the new television licence is expected to come from a number of consortia including strong local and/or overseas television experts, local business and black empowerment groups.
Simply to prepare these applications will cost several millions of rands -20-million to 30-million may not be unusual. The losers may get nothing, and the winners will get the right to run a large, potentially lucrative business.
Does that sound strange or unfair? Then welcome to the world of global communication. This is the system that was adopted in the United Kingdom, and many other countries with their first commercial or private licences, in order to ensure competition around quality instead of just price.
As broadcasting markets have matured, they have moved more and more to auctioning off licences to the highest bidder.
However, to aid the early stages of developing a private broadcasting industry, South Africa, at the World Trade Centre where the IBA Act was written, chose not to go that route as it is committed to ensuring diversity in the broadcasting arena.
The IBA had to make a choice which involved a trade-off – lots of little stations would only be viable covering a small area of the country and using mostly cheap programming. On the other hand, planning for a strong national coverage by a licence makes it possible to insist on substantial local programming that will express our culture and develop our programming industry.
Viewers stand to benefit from the new television station as it will compete directly with SABC channels for audiences by providing a strong mix of news and current affairs during prime time, as well as local and overseas drama series, sitcoms and soaps.
That’s some of the thinking so far. Now it’s over to the public. The IBA has published the terms of the proposed licence. Comments must be in by February 28 1997. That will be followed by public hearings in March next year where people are invited to make their case. A final document will then be drafted and licence applications will close in June.
The IBA drafted its plan for the new television station after extensive international comparative research – especially to determine how much South African-made news and drama the South African television advertising market can afford.
The Private TV Discussion Document is based on the assumption – accepted by financial experts – that the new station will not only draw an existing revenue now going to SABC stations, but also on new advertising revenue that will expand the television advertising cake.
To ensure a fair competitive environment, the IBA will investigate M-Net’s licence conditions, taking into account the SABC’s obligations as well. That inquiry will look at M-Net’s continued use of the two-hour window of open time, and the fact that M-Net is currently broadcasting on two channels in many of South Africa’s towns.
It will also compare M-Net’s advertising rules with subscription channels in other countries.
The IBA intends to settle the future terms for M-Net next year, so that the potential owners of the new channel know what the playing field will look like before they get on to it.
Local content and programming regulations used by IBA counterparts in other Commonwealth countries, including Canada, Australia and Britain, were taken into account.
The rules for the new television station are different from the new private radio stations which the IBA has begun to licence. Television is limited by its costs and the number of frequencies available, so the new channel must cater to a wide range of tastes.