South Africa's broadcasting regulator, Icasa, has poured cold water over the SABC's request for an "urgent public review" of the country's so-called "must carry" regulations, telling TVwithThinus that the regulator's must carry rules won't be reviewed soon.
The SABC urgently wants a change to the must carry regulations under which pay-TV operators like MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes Media SA and On Digital Media's (ODM) StarSat are forced to carry the SABC's TV channels, SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3, but then get these channels for free.
The SABC wants pay-TV operators to pay for these channels.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) said in response to the SABC board's letter to the regulator that the SABC's urgent request won't be considered any time soon.
Icasa said it "noted the contents of the letter received from the SABC on 21 November 2017 in respect of the impact of the must carry regulations" and that any process to change regulations "must involve engagement of all stakeholders through public consultation to afford all affected and impacted parties an opportunity to be heard".
Icasa says "the same process was followed during the development and implementation of the current must carry regulations, and the SABC participated fully in that process".
According to Icasa the SABC won't get an urgent public review of the must carry regulations anytime soon.
"The review of the must carry regulations is not in the plan for the current financial year," says Icasa.
"Therefore the SABC's request for this review can only be considered in line with the regulator's future planned programmes of performance and delivery of its mandate."
