With the SABC not meeting its public service mandate, advertisers and independent producers are pushing the IBA to speedily decide on a new free-to-air channel, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy
THE burgeoning crisis and disarray within the SABC is prompting independent producers and advertisers to look to the new free-to- air channel as a way of rescuing South Africa’s beleaguered television industry.
Producers are pressuring the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to bolster public service programming, which is in dire straits at the SABC, by insisting the new channel put more locally produced programmes on television.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, the IBA also has to meet the needs of advertisers who do not necessarily want local programmes to increase, but are pushing for programmes that will bring in audiences, increase Audience Ratings (ARs) and boost business.
The regulator faces a tough decision as it prepares to award a licence for a free-to- air television channel by year-end.
Despite the need for a private television station that promises to serve viewers and create competition, the SABC has asked that the IBA delay the licensing of the terrestrial channel.
When the SABC presented its comments on the IBA’s private television discussion paper last week, it was television chief executive Jill Chisholm who seemed to annoy independent producers and advertisers.
Chisholm argued that the time is not right for a fourth channel. “The question that needs to be asked: is this really the appropriate, optimum time to bring a new broadcaster into the market place?”
While competition would “enliven and challenge” as well as “benefit viewers and the independent industry”, the need for a new television channel needed to be “balanced against the statutory obligation to ensure the viability” of the SABC, she said.
The issue of a shrinking advertising pie was once again raised, as well as M-Net’s two- hour window-time. Chisholm also criticised the advertising industry for basing its spend judgment on ARs.
Despite the SABC’s reluctance to support the immediate introduction of a competitor, producers and advertisers are adamant that the new channel is timeous. But the industries differ on the criteria that should be used to select the successful applicant.
While some producers want more regulation and intervention by the IBA to ensure that local talent is exposed, some advertisers fear that the fourth channel may be a clone of the SABC.
Saatchi & Saatchi chief executive officer William Leach fears the IBA may “restrict” the new channel too much, ridding it of any chance to become competitive. “The IBA is trying to dictate programming and advertising and if this new channel is to prove promising for advertisers, then it should be allowed the freedom to decide its own programmes,” he says.
But the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) of South Africa disagrees.
IPO chair Mfundi Vundla admits that “great expectations” are riding on the advent of a new television station, but argues that more regulation is required. “The IBA should stop pussyfooting around and promulgate into law a definite quota of local content. Local content and business are not enemies and this is what the new television channel must realise,” he says.
Vundla argues that audiences are yearning for local programmes, adding that South Africa needs to build its own television culture. “I think the new free-to-air channel should be forced to broadcast local content programmes … quality programmes. No victory was achieved for the independents at the SABC but things can be different with the new channel.”
Frustrated film-makers this week told the Mail & Guardian they would welcome a new television channel as the SABC is in a “chaotic state” with bloated bureaucracy and “no desire, it seems, to meet the public service mandate outlined by the IBA”.
“Why else would they treat independents so appallingly and not provide for quality local content programmes?” asked one film maker.
Independent producer Moonyeenn Lee agrees. “Any breath of fresh air” will be “wonderful” next to the SABC, she says, but cautions that the IBA should use “professionalism” as its key criterion when awarding the licence, rather than “be motivated by political correctness”.
Lack of professionalism is where the SABC faltered, filling its corridors with “people who have no television background and who do not know what makes good television”.
Lee is cynical and argues that one channel cannot provide work for all the independent producers seeking to channel their creativity. However, she admits that “it’s a step in the right direction”.
Catalyst Films owner and independent film- maker Jeremy Nathan says he hopes the new new free-to-air channel will create a platform for competition. “The current state of television is the worse that it’s ever been,” says Nathan, adding that the new private station will “hopefully break the stranglehold held by the SABC and M-Net over the independent industry”.
Nathan says he hopes that “by law” commissioning procedures will be put in place whereby the independent production sector can be allowed to flourish and contribute quality programmes which are locally made and flighted for domestic viewers.
Kamscilla Naidoo of Prime Time International concurs. She argues that independent producers are frustrated with the SABC always harping about its financial woes and its inability to appreciate the creativity of local talent.
“There are many untold stories and facets of life that we, as independent producers, want to tell but without the support and means to produce, our creativity will never reach local audiences,” says Naidoo.
She adds that women producers, in particular, should be allowed to tap into local audiences – of which a large portion is female – as women need to be empowered.
“Seeing foreign crews telling the stories that we should be telling is very discouraging,” says Naidoo, adding that a new free-to-air independent channel, which shares the same vision as producers and who understand television, will be warmly welcomed by the sector.
Independent producer and owner of Phakathi Films Mark Newman dismissed the SABC’s efforts to delay a new terrestrial television channel. He says it is a “critical time” for television and the IPO feels it is imperative that “South African television is saved.
“The SABC has messed up badly and this new television channel has to embrace our local production. All-in-all we have to rethink broadcasting and we are now fighting for the soul of the country.”
Lindsay Smithers-FCB managing director Harry Herber is anxious that advertisers eventually get a channel which they can sell. He says it is not only the consumer but also advertisers that are “desperately looking” for an alternative to the SABC. “The market and audiences are waiting with bated breathe.”
The applicants who have made submissions on the IBA’s discussion paper on private television include:
* Station for the Nation, with founding shareholders Moribo Investments (a subsidiary of Thebe Investments), Interleisure and Nine Network Australia.
* Free-to-Air consortium, headed by former SABC head Quentin Greene, together with Kagiso Trust Investments and talkshow host Dali Tambo’s African Dream consortium.
* Community Television Network, owned by Vanessa du Plessis, wife of Gauteng Newspapers’ managing director Deon du Plessis.
* Rainbow Television, headed by Mathews Malefane, which incorporates Rainbow Trust and undisclosed foreign partners.
* RM Production house head Rapitse Montsho’s Vula Television, partnered by the Youth Investment Network, a national economic empowerment organisation for black youth; Letsogo’s Women Investment; and the National Empowerment Consortium.