MONDAY, 11.30AM
THE SABC, which lost R60 million last year, has made a profit of R72 million in the last six months, it was announced today.
SABC spokeswoman Marj Murray attributed the turnaround since March to an “aggressive marketing campaign” to persuade people to pay their licence fees, and to massive corporate restructuring which closed several departments and resulted in 1 400 retrenchments.
The SABC is also confident of bringing in more advertising, owing to an increase of 200 000 more viewers “at atime when print readership has gone down”.
Recently the SABC called for an R100 million grant from the government, and other requests for grants to upgrade certain radio stations and increase the reach of its transmitters. Murray said the requests had been made before the profits became apparent and were still under discussion with the government.