“Eighty three percent of the revenue base is made up of airtime sales and sponsorships, 15 percent of its revenue is derived from television licences, and between one and two percent comes from government transfers,” says SABC’s public and regulatory affairs director, Ihron Rensburg. “That clearly positions us as a modern public broadcaster.”
“Precisely because such a large chunk of our revenue comes from airtime sales and sponsorships, we are expected to drive audiences. We need to put on air distinctive and compelling programming.”
Dr Rensburg believes that because the SABC is becoming more competitive in chasing advertising revenue, it is expected to be “robust and vigorous in the marketplace” in terms of content. “But we are not going commercial at all. It’s all about distinctive programming in a public service framework.”
Last year, the SABC posted a profit and would do the same again this year, Dr Rensburg said. “The issue is not how big the profit is, but how sustainable we are.”
SABC 1 is still the dominant player in its target market, with 43 percent of the total market share, while both SABC 2 and SABC 3 have been feeling the pinch from pay channel M-Net and free-to-air channel e.tv.
Dr Rensburg said the downward trend on SABC 2 was taking a turn for the better with repeats being flighted during primetime. “We will be entrenching and consolidating this channel as the family channel.”
Theme nights and high-end reality programming are part of the strategy to improve the trend on SABC 3, with its focus on “more wordly aspirational” programming. “We are now focussing on targeting audiences, as opposed to getting all the channels to do everything.”
Since government is the broadcaster’s only shareholder, Dr Rensburg said that part of the corporatisation plan of the SABC was to put a shareholder’s agreement in place between the government and the broadcaster that would outline expectations and performance.
“The big challenge that remains for us at the SABC now is to deliver on our language mandate. Universal access is both about the percentage of South Africans who have access to television signals terrestrially, as well as about language.”