The SABC's latest plan to help lessen the billions of rand lost in fruitless and wasteful expenditure is to "reclassify" the TV content that it had bought and wasted because it didn't broadcast it in time, as not being wasteful.
The beleaguered and loss-making SABC, more
than any other South African broadcaster like e.tv and M-Net, ends up buying
food for the TV fridge that just sits there, rots and ends up as waste that
must be thrown away, not scheduled and consumed in time.
The SABC annually racks up massive content
losses in this area on its balance sheet, wasting SABC TV licence payers' money
by buying programming it doesn't show before the broadcasting licensing right windows
expires.
This happens because the SABC wastes money by
buying programming that is inappropriate for the audience and channel
demographics, because there’s no space on the SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 schedules –
or because the content acquisitions hub and schedulers don't make sure that the
TV that's bought is broadcast before the "use by" date.
The SABC keeps failing to properly assess and
align the public broadcaster's playout needs in terms of scheduled number of
hours with what it ends up buying. The written-off glut of TV programming bought
and paid for but that that ends up never being shown, is annually classified as
part of fruitless and wasteful expenditure – the same as with all broadcasters.
Now the SABC wants to "reclassify" some of
this wasted, bought TV content through no longer seeing it as "fruitless and
wasteful".
'They throw in other
titles that you don't need'
Although all TV broadcasters – public television
services and pay-TV operators – all operate under the same playbook, the SABC's
acting CEO, James Aguma now wants to shift the blame for fruitless and wasteful
expenditure in terms of some programming costs to content distributors and
content sellers.
James Aguma, now blaming TV content distributors
and content sellers, is taking the same page as the disgraced former SABC
chairperson dr Ben Ngubane, who also previously told parliament the SABC can't
really be held responsible for all of the TV content it acquires and fails to
show in time.
James Aguma told parliament's portfolio
committee on communications this week that the SABC is busy reworking how the TV
content that the public broadcaster buys and ends up wasting – marked as
fruitless and wasteful expenditure on its balance sheet – is seen.
James Aguma, an accountant and auditor from Uganda,
told parliament that "a lot of fruitless and wasteful expenditure at the SABC
arises from two sources. One is writing off content. You go and buy content,
lets say 8 titles."
"But your schedule only allows you to
broadcast 3 or 4 programmes – and you actually only want four, but they sell
you a package. The parlance in broadcasting is you buy the dog and fleas".
"So we're saying if we do not have space to
broadcast that because we only have 3 channels, then inevitably you'll find at
year-end you have to write-off that. Because the rights that you have are
time-based."
"They [international content distributors] are
giving you rights to broadcast something. But you know that you only want four
titles. Then they throw in other titles that you don't need. And it's take it
or leave it unfortunately in the broadcasting industry."
"So you’ll see that we're continuously
showing that as fruitless and wasteful expenditure," said James Aguma.
"But we're having a debate at a principal
level whether it strictly meets the definition of fruitless and wasteful.
Because it an amount that could have been avoided if reasonable steps were put
in place."
Take cows and donkeys
"If somebody says: 'I want 4 cows', and he
says 'No, take 3 donkeys, buy it as a package' and you say 'No, I want the 4' and he says 'If you want the cows, take the donkeys' then I don't think those 3
strictly meet the definition of fruitless and wasteful," James Aguma told
parliament.
"You may not have gotten value, but what
could you have done to avoid in that industry to avoid the buying of the dog
and fleas so to speak? So we’re going to adjust that note also in conjunction
with the Auditor-General (AG)."
Fanny by Gaslight
While the SABC's James Aguma is correct that TV
content acquisitions are sometimes "bundled" – premium programme buys come
attached with lower-tiered series and movies, other broadcasters worldwide, as
well as e.tv and M-Net in South Africa, are much better at managing, scheduling
and working away the flotsam with the fantastic so that it doesn't end up as a
liability and content write-off.
For every How
I Met Your Mother and Anaconda: Hunt
for the Blood Orchid on e.tv that the red letter free-to-air broadcaster
actually wanted, there's a Fanny by
Gaslight scheduled and burnt off in a near-midnight slot.
It's also not just international content. The
SABC also runs rougshod over local content that equally contributes to
fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
In December the SABC for instance abruptly
ordered an end to the contract of the weekday local prime time drama series High Rollers on SABC3, produced by Rous
House Productions.
With months left on the signed contract of
the recently ordered third season, the SABC suddenly wanted High Rollers on SABC3 shut down and off
the air, citing "changing programming needs".
With the remainder of the contract that must
be paid out whether the public broadcaster has anything to show for it or not,
the SABC is wasting and essentially paying money to a production company to not
deliver local content – episodes that it ordered and wanted just months ago.
As far back as 2013 dr Ben Ngubane warned that content purchasing decisions at the SABC will no longer be made by one
executive.
In the past the SABC several times have sent
people not skilled or versed in international programming acquisition – and flying
business class – to foreign film festivals and content markets where they
signed deals and picked up programming wholly unsuitable for the SABC.
