by Thinus Ferreira
The struggling South African public broadcaster failed to reach its own ratings targets for its TV channels, with the Auditor-General (AG) noting that despite a government bailout of R3.2 billion in 2019, there has been no real financial improvement at the cash-strapped SABC.
The SABC set audience share targets for 2023/24 during prime time viewing of 22% for SABC1, 6% for SABC2 and 3% for SABC3 - yet only managed a viewership share of 18.8% for SABC1, 4.1% for SABC2, and a paltry 1.5% for SABC3.
The SABC's big broadcasting sword of Damocles is its massive ballooning debt of just under R1 billion owed to the parastatal signal distributor Sentech, with this debt also adding interest.
South Africa's Auditor-General (AG) office briefed parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) about the SABC on Tuesday, noting the various targets the SABC failed to achieve during its 2023/24 financial year.
As the SABC's TV viewership slides, so does the advertising income it manages to get as it battles the rise of streamers like Netflix and Disney+, alongside rivals like pay-TV operator MultiChoice, eMedia's e.tv and Openview, and YouTube.
"Obviously the more top-rated programmes you are showcasing, means you're attracting the viewers to come watch you're shows - the higher the viewership, it has a direct correlation to the advertising," auditor Nathan Lawnet told Scopa.
He said the SABC needs sufficient cash to purchase "the right content".
The technically insolvent SABC also failed in its capital expenditure project on an operational news production system, didn't complete implementation of a new scheduling system, and didn't complete the number of SABC websites (16) and SABC mobile applications (16) is set targets for.
One of these relates to the online streaming of the various SABC radio stations.
"The SABC in 2019 did receive a R3.2 billion bailout which was tied to a 3-year turnaround plan. Despite the turnaround plan, we haven't seen a significant improvement in the financial position of the SABC," Lawnet said.
According to the AG, the cost of the SABC's public mandate keeps increasing as it runs the SABC News channel and other news services, coupled with increasing costs for TV sports rights, as well as mandated programming in prime time with no government funding.
Then there is the annual SABC TV Licence fee as an outdated revenue source not keeping up with changes in the broadcasting industry.
"The fact is that the SABC is not yet out of its position that it finds itself in, depends on government and is not financially sustainable - the debt is continuing to grow that the SABC owes," he explained.
The AG's office mentioned that the SABC should "maximise" their digital platforms.
"They've launched the SABC+ app and should ensure that they grow the viewership from that point of view to appeal to a larger market."
On SABC TV Licence fees, the broadcaster continues to expect to get around R687 million from this annual income stream - although very few TV households still bother to pay this.
The SABC is actually supposed to make R4 billion from this if the rest of the 86% of non-payers contributed.
"Dealing with this matter and finding other innovative ways of sourcing the funding that help the SABC so that they can still deliver on their mandate, is a key matter that the SABC needs to look into," he said.
"They need another strategy to collect the money due to them," Lawnet noted.
"If you don't have the cash and the ability to buy the content and also to attract new viewership, sustainability in future will remain a challenge."
While the SABC nets R687 million in SABC TV Licences "the potential amount they can actually bill should technically be R4 billion. But if you look at the last few years, the R700 million is what they are recovering and what is being paid by the public."
"It's nowhere enough to sustain what the SABC actually needs in order to do what's required of them."
