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The South African Public Broadcaster told parliament today that the SABC is seriously looking at reigning it its ''programming impairment'' - the amount the SABC has to write-off annually for shows it bought but didn't show soon enough because the licensing rights have expired, or shows it had to buy as part of a package but don't intend to broadcast.
''We want Oprah,'' dr Ben Ngubane, SABC chairperson, explained to parliament's portfolio committee on communications, ''but then they [sellers] say: You can only get Oprah if you buy it with other things that go with it. And more often than not the other lesser things are really of no value.''
''Because you are after Oprah – because Oprah drives audiences, and it drives your revenues, you end up buying Oprah,'' said dr Ben Ngubane. ''But then you are left with 10 other programmes that you don't have value for. So they end up not being shown. We use this language in television that you're buying a dog with its fleas. You don't want the fleas. You want the dog. But you're told that you will not get the dog unless you also take it with its fleas. It's a package.''
''We are addressing that situation. That is why content enterprises at the SABC has been collapsed into the television division so that TV show buying is driven by schedule. Acquisition of content is driven by need, so that channels must first say 'We want A,B,C,D' and then you buy what you need. We are dealing with this situation to make sure that programming impairment is addressed.''
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