South African government compares South African TV industry and digital terrestrial television to the Ukraine.

The South African government is comparing South Africa's TV industry and the long-delayed switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) to the Ukraine.

Instead of comparing upwards and to countries with more sophisticated television markets and TV industries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe and comparable TV markets like Australia, New Zealand, parts of Asia as well as South America, the South African government chooses countries with lesser developed TV markets when it wants to compare and rationalise the inclusion of a conditional access (CA) system or encryption for free-to-air public television.

At issue is a contentious standoff in South Africa's switch from analogue to digital television, already delayed for more than half a decade.

The majority of South Africa's broadcasters want public, free-to-air television in South Africa to remain unencrypted. Some manufacturers agree.

Some local decoder manufacturers, the government and e.tv however want an encryption system be built into the set-top boxes.

South Africa's 11 million TV households will have to buy a set-top box at about R800 each, and in many cases also a new special antenna as an additional expense. Built-in encryption technology - whether used or not - will make these boxes more expensive in terms of hardware as well as proprietary software licences.

Encryption will also lock the boxes for South Africa, making it impossible for South African viewers to possibly buy cheaper imported STBs which adhere to standards, or to buy TV sets from international manufacturers which have DTT receivers automatically built-in, but no encryption systems.

An encryption system which makes boxes more complex and expensive for the ordinary TV viewer, will aid the government's goal of using digital migration for job creation, to build and maintain a local set-top box industry.

An encryption system will also enable STBs to be switched off when they're taken outside of South Africa's borders like neighbouring countries, preventing TV signals from South African TV channels from being seen outside of the country.

The department of communications attacked the pay-TV platform MultiChoice, South Africa's community TV stations and the National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (Namec), saying other countries are also using, or are about to use the same system where the signals for public television are encrypted and with an encryption system built into boxes.

"They include Zambia, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Seychelles, Malawi, Nigeria, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya, Malaysia, Ukraine, Belarus and Slovakia," says the department of communications".

In a statement South Africa's minister of communications, Yunus Carrim says South Africa's STBs "will have a control system for industrial policy and other reasons".

"The STB policies are consistent with the ANC's Mangaung resolutions and government's policies on encouraging competition in monopolised sectors, BBBEE, job-creation and advancing the needs of the poor and disadvantaged," says Yunus Carrim.

"The South African market will be flooded by cheap low quality STB imports and undermine the local manufacturing industry and the prospects of jobs," says Yunus Carrim.

"Poor people will not be able to buy new digital televisions for years to come".

"Most emerging black manufacturers anyway support control. Without it, they will lose out to foreign imports".

OPINION. Dear communications minister Yunus Carrim, stop behaving like the evil emperor of the galaxy with digital television in South Africa.

South Africa's egotistical minister of communications Yunus Carrim appears to not want public debate on the country's long-stalled switch-over to digital terrestrial television (DTT), and has the audacity to blatantly hint, overtly warn, and admonish groups and organisations that they've  "served to substantially weaken the case of those opposed to the government's policy" by simply speaking out about it.

Don't forget that these groups and places have existed for far longer than Yunus Carrim has in his position. Instead of congratulating people for the courage of their convictions to speak out, Yunus Carrim appears to want to blast them into submission - and to show others that they better keep quiet.

Trash, mister minister Yunus Carrim. Trash.

And if the TV industry - which has much more expertise, knowledge and years of experience than you because they actually work with these things and have for years, speaks out in ads and an open letter - and that ad and public appeal weakens their case in your eyes, then really there is something very big wrong with the department of communications and whoever makes decisions regarding DTT.

(Perhaps the TV industry should then take out national full page ads declaring "Hlaudi Motsoeneng at the SABC should stay" minister Yunus Carrim, because then that will also "weaken their case", meaning you will finally remove him. Just saying, because that's actually a real problem.)

Stop behaving like the emperor of the galaxy minister Yunus Carrim.

Unlike that galaxy far, far away, the last time I checked South Africa is/was still a democracy, sir. With freedom of speech and all that, at least on paper.

By telling a portion of South Africa's very concerned TV industry - our struggling community TV stations, a pay-TV operator, even an organisation making components used in the industry - that they've weakened their case by simply giving air to their grievances and telling ordinary South Africans where they stand and what they really feel is wrong, you want to SCARE others from speaking up and speaking out.

That is wrong and it is called being a bully.

I've read the open letter. As the minister of South Africa in charge of a department which has taken more than a decade now to bring our country DTT and still hasn't commercially switched it on, a department lorded over by a former "general" which derailed the process by wanting to change the digital broadcasting standard, and a department which disbanded the Digital Dzonga advisory council (on 1 April April Fools Day no less) not once but twice, you call the stance and the open letter's content's "astonishingly inaccurate".

Well, as a journalist who've covered television and the South African TV industry for longer than the terms of the previous FIVE ministers of communications COMBINED, I would call the open letter insightful, important, and filled with real facts made understandable to ordinary consumers, filled with warnings, and something drawing attention to real serious issues.

If I were you minister Yunus Carrim, I would not chastise but thank those in the South African TV industry speaking out and speaking directly to South Africa's confused and uninformed consumers and TV viewers.

Certainly someone has to, since nobody appears to be speaking to them (I thought the government and the department of communications and a national DTT call centre was supposed to).

Instead silence continues.

The flow of information to ordinary people from the government and the department of communications on what DTT is, what it entails, and what the real practical costs are, have certainly not been forthcoming.

How much is a set-top box minister Yunus Carrim? Who will decide if I'm poor enough for a subsidy and how, and who decided the income level cut-off and why?

Will the SABC be forced to supply the SABC News channel to DStv, StarSat and OpenView HD - what exactly is the rules for must-carry under digital television? Oh wait. There aren't any.

Can South Africans buy set-top boxes that adhere to the exact SABS and South African regulatory specifications if it is cheaper but not made in South Africa? When exactly will digital migration start commercially?

I can't call the answers to these and multiple more similar questions I have about DTT in South Africa "astonishingly inaccurate" ... because there aren't any.

Please stop demonising South Africa's TV industry minister Yunus Carrim. Their interest is the South African TV industry and TV viewers.

Yours should be too.

BREAKING. South Africa's TV industry begs government and minister Yunus Carrim to launch digital public TV and without encryption.

South Africa's community TV stations, the satellite pay-TV platform MultiChoice and The National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components (Namec) in a joint open letter to the South African government is begging the minister of communications and the department of communications to please urgently launch and start "free, unencrypted digital terrestrial television (DDT)" in South Africa "without any further delay".

South Africa's switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television, a process known as digital migration has been delayed for years and is vastly behind schedule; the country has been passed by almost all African countries including Rwanda and Zimbabwe and South Africa has become the laughing stock of the African continent as far as digital public television is concerned.

The Association of Community Television South Africa (Act-SA), MultiChoice and Namec who are also supported by the SABC and the Black Business Council (BBC) in their stance on DTT, want DTT to be launched in South Africa and without the inclusion of a Conditional Access (CA) system.

They say that a CA system - basically an encryption system built into set top boxes (STBs) which South Africans will have to buy - are unnecessary for open, public broadcasting.

They say it will make STBs more expensive, more complex and will lock South Africa into a digital TV system from which the country will never be able to escape.

The group says a Conditional Access (CA) in a STB for public broadcasting and free-to-air TV channels "has been almost universally rejected internationally, it will make the migration process more expensive and it is opposed by most South African broadcasters".

The group is begging Yunis Carrim, the minister of communications to start DTT and not to allow the inclusion of a CA system which will be detrimental to public broadcasting in South Africa, bad to the poorest TV households in South Africa, with a CA system which will only "advance narrow commercial interests".

The ongoing DTT delay and the highly-contentious and controversial in-fighting over CA inclusion or not in STBs is the latest stumbling block hampering South Africa's digital television migration.

Previously the South African government suddenly wanted to change the best, and agreed upon, digital broadcasting standard before finally confirming DBV-T2 and the broadcasting regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) kept changing and re-issuing digital TV regulations over and over with vastly changed specifications.

The government disbanded the Digital Broadcasting Advisory Board (DBAB) or Digital Dzonga advisory board twice and then scrapped it.

Here is the open letter to the South African government and minister Yunis Carrim from the highly concerned group within South Africa's TV industry:

Dear Minister Carrim

For some time now, we have been involved in discussions with you and other stakeholders around your policy which seeks to regulate the migration of TV services from the current analogue broadcast system to digital.

Digital migration marks an exciting new phase in broadcasting (with great opportunities) and will have far reaching consequences for consumers, Government and broadcasters. The major impact will be on South African consumers.

Nearly 8 million analogue TV households will need a set-top box (“STB”) to allow older TV sets to receive the new digital signals.

Your position is that set-top boxes must include technology which is unnecessary and expensive, specifically encryption technology which is used to control access to TV services. 

We have serious reservations about this – it has been almost universally rejected internationally, it will make the migration process more expensive and it is opposed by most South African broadcasters.

Including this technology in every free-to-air STB will:
1. Harm consumers by raising the cost of digital migration and binding consumers to an STB forever; Over time all TV sets will be digital, which in other countries do not need set-top boxes. However, if the current proposals are implemented, in South Africa (almost alone in the world) even consumers with digital TV sets will be forced to buy a completely unnecessary set-top box, because the free TV signal will be encrypted.
2. Harm free-to-air broadcasting by increasing the cost of free-to-air television for broadcasters;
3. Disadvantage emerging black manufacturers;
4. Increase the costs of migration for Government, which has already committed itself to subsidizing STBs for the poorest 5 million TV households. Unlike in other countries, this need to subsidise will continue forever because free TV signals will be encrypted here; and
5. Make the migration process complex and result in further delays.
We dispute this aspect of your policy and believe the costs greatly outweigh any supposed benefits.
Your current proposals advance certain narrow commercial interests – rather than being in the interests of our nation.

We appeal to you to allow free, unencrypted digital terrestrial television to launch without any further delay.

BREAKING. SABC gives zero coverage to the minister of communications, Yunus Carrim, meeting with the SABC board today over scathing report.

The minister of communications Yunus Carrim and the department's deputy-minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams met with the SABC board today about the Public Protector's scathing report released last week - but the story of the meeting and discussion didn't make the SABC's SABC News (DStv 404) channel on Thursday, nor was it mentioned or given airtime on the SABC's flagship evening programme on SABC3.

As during the scant coverage last week by the SABC and given on the SABC's channels, of the beleaguered SABC's corporate mess, the minister of communication's visit to Auckland Park on Thursday got nary a mention.

Last week the Public Protector's office found that the SABC's matricless liar and acting chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng committed fraud, and imlpicated him in maladministration, abuse of power, irregular appointments and firings at the SABC, and questioned how his salary could balloon to R2.4 million.

The SABC board has now met twice over the Public Protector's report since last week and the matricless liar Hlaudi Motsoeneng who the Public Protector's report found was directly involved in the dismissal of all the SABC staff who testified against him in a disciplinary hearing, is still in office and has not been suspended.

Regarding the Public Protector's report the SABC board has apparently "put a process in motion" but is not communicating what that "process" is, nor what "motion" is taking place.

The minister of communication today told the SABC that a review is needed as to the reasons behind the high turn-over of SABC board members, SABC CEO's given that Lulama Mokhobo just quit without giving reasons, as well as the continued loss of other senior SABC executives.

BREAKING. 'No intention to cut off anybody,' with digital terrestrial television (DTT) through Conditional Access (CA) system, says minister.

There is no intention to cut off any TV viewer in South Africa once the long-delayed and completely stalled switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) finally happens, the minister of communications, Yunus Carrim told parliament on Tuesday.

Millions of South Africa's TV viewers are completely unaware about the protracted TV industry battle between manufacters, broadcasters and other parties who are all fighting about the inclusion or not of what is called a Conditional Access (CA) system in set-top boxes.

TV viewers without satellite pay-TV services will all have to buy a STB for about R800 per box during the switch - a process known as digital migration - in order to keep receiving the signal.

There is however a fight about the inclusion or not of a built-in CA system in this box - a locking mechanism which not only makes it more expensive, but also makes it possible for the box to be "switched off" by broadcasters by scrambling signals.

It will also create an artificial manufacturing bubble for DTT STB in South Africa by ensuring through the CA system that only STBs manufactured in South Africa can be used here, that STBs taken outside of South Africa will be switched off and won't work, and that STBs and TV sets with built-in digital STB receivers from international manufacturers won't work if brought into South Africa.

The majority of broadcasters in South Africa are opposed to a Conditional Access (CA) system for DTT, said Yunus Carrim.

The severly delayed DTT switch has been further delayed by this latest skirmish since neither side - those for and against CA - wants to budge. The minister said he is giving all side another three weeks to find a way through the months long impasse and then the department is going to intervene.

MultiChoice, M-Net, the SABC, community TV stations and some STB manufacturers oppose any form of CA control. e.tv and some manufacturers want CA control.

ALSO READ: Stalled digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration in South Africa hijacked for job creation, losing sight of the ordinary TV viewer.

About the option of Conditional Access Yunus Carrim told parliament on Tuesday that "there is no intention to cut off anybody. This has never been the intention since 2012".

"It's an old policy in 2008 that said you must use this thing to cut off people who can't pay. You can't do that, it's unconstitutional. You can't cut people off if they're not going to pay for the SABC licence. That was never the intention since 2012," Yunus Carrim said.

He said that the choices made regarding DTT should benefit the SABC.

"It is the SABC's interests that primarily should dominate. Our approach is to deal with the set top-box (STB) so that it positions the SABC to outflank both the pay-TV commercial broadcasters and the free-to-air commercials broadcasters in South Africa because the SABC needs to grow stronger," said Yunus Carrim.

BREAKING. Stalled digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration in South Africa hijacked for 'job creation', minister mentions everyone - except the TV viewer.

The South African TV industry's long-delayed and completely stalled switch-over from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) has been hijacked for "job creation" and other interests and concerns, having lost sight of what really matters the most - the ordinary TV viewer.

The convoluted DTT process in South Africa has become all about about money, political and economic job creation, court cases and everything but the accessibility, the ability to afford it, and ultimately what makes the best viewing experience for the ordinary TV viewer in South Africa.

Although the paramount concern and interest is and should remain what is best, easiest, and least disruptive to the South African TV viewer and providing the best quality and widest choice of TV channels, DTT in South Africa remains vastly delayed.

DTT's interests and objectives are skewed, and is now primarily about money, economics and "job creation". The South African government wants to use DTT to create 25 500 jobs, superceding the best interests of the ordinary TV viewer.

Although South Africa started first with planning for it as the first country in Africa to do so, the country has now become the laughing stock of the continent as far as DTT is concerned and the switch-over process known as digital migration.

South Africa is lagging far behind even countries like Rwanda and Zimbabwe which have made the switch - a process which must be completed internationally by June 2015 but a deadline which South Africa is going to miss.

DTT was supposed to launch in South Africa in 2008 and then end the process of "dual illumination" in 2011 - the point where broadcasters no longer each run an analogue and digital signal concurrently while viewers made the switch, but only continue with a digital signal.

Years after the self-imposed deadline, digital television migration in South Africa is a convoluted mess.


The next e-tolling saga waiting to explode?
Experts describe it to TV with Thinus as the next e-tolling saga waiting to explode when ordinary TV viewers without pay-TV satellite dishes discover that they'll have to pay around R800 for a set-top box (STB) - basically a decoder - just to keep receiving the public television transmissions they used to get. In many cases ordinary viewers will also have to buy a new antenna.

STB cost will also be higher to ordinary consumers due to proprietary software and the hardware which has to be included in the manufacture of the boxes due to a controversial Conditional Access (CA) system.

Potential STB manufacturers and broadcasters are all fighting among and with each other over the CA issue - basically whether this "lock" should be built into the decoder boxes or not.

Those who argue for it says a CA system is necessary to make sure boxes are manufactured in South Africa only, that manufacturing standards can be maintained and that boxes can be turned off when taken outside of South Africa. It will protect and enable local STB job manufacture and creation.

Those who argue against a CA system says it raises the cost, that public access and free television in a country should never include a "condition" for citizens to be able to watch television, unfair competition, and that it makes it more difficult for ordinary viewers to use.

The government decided on a CA system "to protect its investment" since the South African government will subside the manufacturing of STBs and to "ensure standards". In 2013 the government softened CA specifications, saying it will be included but remain "optional".


'It is really about jobs'
The minister of communications, Yunus Carrim, giving feedback from the department in parliament on Wednesday, never used or referred to the interest of the ordinary TV viewers once.

On the contentious Conditional Access (CA) system over which the industry and broadcasters such as the SABC and MultiChoice on the one side, and Sabido's e.tv on the other, are still at loggerheads, Yunus Carrim told the portfiolio committee on communications that "those who want to use it can use it, those who don't want to use it, don't have to use it. Those who use it will have to pay for it".

"However there's still no consensus. We could strictly go ahead and implement it [the policy] but we think we should still try to bridge the gaps".

"This is not an issue about broadcasters. It is really an issue about jobs," said Yunus Carrim. "We really need this for economic growth reasons. It's not a luxury".

"Here [in South Africa] we are stuck about 'if you have control, we will take you to court' and 'if you don't have control, we will take you to court'. The world is moving on. And we are here - still stuck."

"So we are pleading with stakeholders. We're keeping it open for another three to four weeks, and then government will have to decide what to do," said Yunus Carrim.

"We [government] do not want to proceed without more consensus. We want everybody to work together on this thing," he said. "We can't continue like this. People can continue their profits. They can continue to fight for market share, but surely there is a time for national interest. I don't know what more government can do," said Yunus Carrim.

"If we drop Conditional Access control altogether, we can't as government see how we're going to protect black emerging manufacturers - let alone the local electronic industry because our market will be flooded by low quality products as happened in Mauritius and Tanzania".

"The point I want to stress is that the STB Conditional Access (CA) matter relates to broader issues of industrial policy. It's not simply a broadcasting issue," said Yunus Carrim.

"The set-top box manufacturing development strategy encourages black emerging entrepreneurs. We have to use this issue to create an indigenous, African emerging electronic industry".

Communication minister Yunus Carrim want to update parliament on corruption and criminal investigations at the SABC in a closed briefing.

Communication minister Yunus Carrim wants to update parliament's portfolio committee on communications on the corruption uncovered at the SABC and what has happened with criminal investigations and prosecutions related to the SABC in a secret briefing behind closed doors.

Yunis Carrim wants to keep the briefing confidential.

Opposition parties are demanding that it be an open briefing so that the public can hear about the SABC's R19,5 million criminal investigation into the South African public broadcaster's own behaviour.

Earlier this year, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) submitted a report to president Jacob Zuma on multitude allegations of corruption at the SABC which allegedly took place between 2005 and 2009.

The report which has not been handed to parliament, could see former and current SABC employees be charged with criminal charges as well as civil claims.

"Our legal advice is that the information that is asked is by its nature confidential and may not be disclosed," said Yunus Carrim.

Opposition parties say they will boycott any briefing if its held behind closed door and if its done in secret.

"Minister Yunus Carrim should be as frank as possible on the years-long investigation without infringing on the legal rights of those not yet criminally charged," says the DA in a statement.

"Anything else will be deemed to be a cover-up or lethargy on the part of the SIU and the SABC to adequately deal with the wide-ranging corruption that brought the SABC to its knees four years ago."

"In order to root out corruption at the public broadcaster, it is necessary that the appropriate action is taken against any and all employees guilty of corrupt activities. A frank discussion in an open committee is the surest way to go."

The SABC's editorial independence will not be compromised in the run-up to the 2014 elections, says the minister of communications.

The SABC's editorial independence will not be compromised in the run-up to the South African general elections to be held in 2014, says Yunus Carrim, the minister of communications.

Yunus Carrim was speaking in parliament and said that the SABC is obliged to adhere to the regulations from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), the Independent Electoral Commission's Code of Conduct and the SABC's own internal guidelines in terms of covering pre-election stories.


Editor's note: There is of course, tragically, two points of intense irony here. Firstly it is that the SABC's editorial independence and editorial integrity has been compromised a long time ago.

The blatant censorship, skewed news values, cronyism and interference in news at the SABC can be observed weekly, if not daily, in the sad and sorry sack of scandals emanating from SABC corridors, such as the very current drama of the matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng who've ordered The Big Debate talk show to be pulled off of the SABC2 schedule.

Secondly, how sad that a minister from a political party, and from the ruling party in a country, has to say something like that of a broadcaster. As if the SABC is a state broadcaster (which it isn't - it's a public broadcaster).

If anyone was going to say the SABC will be editorially independent, it should be, can only be, and must be coming from the SABC's CEO Lulama Mokhobo who is the editor-in-chief, and not from a political minister.

How sad, ironic and eye-rolling terrible.

SABC choir costs the South African public broadcaster more than R2 million per year.

The SABC choir which performs at events such as the memorial service for Vuyo Mbuli and the launch event of the SABC's SABC News channel this year, is costing the South African public broadcaster more than R2.1 million per year.

The SABC choir cost the SABC R2.1 million for the 2012/2013 financial year and the 25 freelancers who are used are each paid R10 000 per month.

The SABC choir costs the SABC R286 000 per month.

The minister of communications, Yunus Carrim told parliament that the money is spent on uniforms and transport costs.

The 25 freelancers are paid R1 000 per rehearsal, and there are 10 rehearsals per month, which works out to R10 000 per freelancer per month.

SHOCKER! SABC unable to say what it did with R1,5 BILLION, latest financial report gets worst EVER audit opinion.

The SABC is unable to say what South Africa's public broadcaster did with more than R1,5 BILLION, prompting the worst EVER audit opinion from the auditor general (AG) which the South African Broadcasting Corporation has ever received.

As the struggling SABC - for years mired in financial mismanagement, corruption, allegations of corruption, top management feuds and vicious executive infighting - presented its latest annual financial report for 2012/2013 in parliament today, the SABC is blatantly still awash in irregular expenditure and plagued by dismal performance as a public institution.

The SABC's latest financial report for 2012/2013 received a Disclaimer of Opinion from the auditor general - even worse than the previous year of 2011/2012 already atrociously bad "Qualified Audit" stamp.

During the SABC's financial year of 2012/2013 the entire SABC board were wiped away after mass resignations following massive ugly infighting which spilled out into the public arena, after which an interim SABC board was appointed.

Lulama Mokhobo is currently the CEO of the beleaguered SABC, with the famously matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng as the acting chief operating officer (COO). He was relieved of this position by the now-gone SABC board but never left his office.

It's now clear that under the so-called "leadership" of Lulama Mokhobo and Hlaudi Motsoeneng the SABC has gone from bad to even worse. The auditor general said the SABC's submitted financial statements didn't adhere to reporting standards. The AG said the SABC's latest financial statements didn't adhere to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) or even the Companies Act.

The SABC's 2012/2013 annual financial report tabled in parliament today is so bad that it prompted the worst audit opinion possible from the AG which reported R106,3 million in irregular expenditure.

The SABC cannot give account of what happened to a staggering R913 million which was collected in TV license fees.

The SABC's latest annual financial report for 2012/2013 received a Disclaimer of Opinion from the AG - issued when the financials of an institution is such a mess that the auditor general is unable and unwilling to form an opinion on the institution's financial statements.

Auditor general Terence Nombembe said the financial mismanagement at the SABC is such that the SABC spent over R1,5 BILLION for which the beleaguered SABC is unable to and cannot provide any corresponding documentation for what the money was used for.

"I was unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate audit evidence for journals processed to broadcasting cost, signal distribution and linking cost, marketing cost, professional and consultancy fees and other expenditure ... which, in total amount to R1 588 929 000, as supporting documentation could not be provided," said Terence Nombembe.

The SABC also missed the targets which it is supposed to attain according to the government guarantee for which the SABC, just before it financially imploded, received a government guaranteed bail-out in the form of a Nedbank loan of R1,4 billion.

The SABC's financial report for 2012/2013 indicated that the SABC didn't make its sponsorship target (50% below what it's supposed to be), didn't make it sale content (66% lower than what it's supposed to be), and even saw a drop in advertising revenue (4% or R190 million) below the set target.

Late on Tuesday the SABC suddenly called a press conference for Wednesday afternoon at the SABC's Auckland Park headquarters over the latest financial report but suddenly cancelled the press conference on Wednesday morning without giving reasons.

Yunus Carrim, the minister of communications says in a statement the government "raised concerns over the SABC's financial performance at the recent annual general meeting and has instituted a joint task team made up of representatives of the department of communications, national treasury, the auditor general's office and the SABC to consider the long-term financial sustainability of the public broadcaster".

BREAKING. Government planning to break up MultiChoice and SuperSport's lock on premium TV content - especially sport.

You're reading it here first. 

The South African government is set on crafting a new policy to bring an end to premium television content in South Africa - especially sport broadcasts - all being locked up by one broadcaster.

So says the minister of communications, Yunus Carrim, who revealed that the ministry of communications is looking at changing broadcasting regulations in South Africa to prevent one content provider or broadcaster from owning all the broadcasting rights.

In South Africa the satellite pay-TV operator MultiChoice which operates the DStv platform together with SuperSport and pay-TV broadcaster M-Net from the Naspers media stable dominate the local TV landscape, with the lion's share of exclusive premium TV content, especially when it comes to entertainment and sports programming.

Yunus Carrim spoke at the launch event in the Sandton Convention Centre of ANN7 (DStv 405), South Africa's third 24-hour news channel which launched its TV broadcast on Wednesday evening.

"We're working toward finalising a new policy on broadcasting and we'll have done so by the end of March 2014," said Yunus Carrim. "The ministry is considering issuing a policy directive to the broadcasting regulator, Icasa, to open up competition in this sector and to give the public more choice on channels and programmes."

"Currently premium content is locked up with one broadcaster - especially in terms of our country's major sport - rugby and soccer needless to say, and cricket. We need to ensure that this becomes more accessible to the widest range of citizens possible," said Yunus Carrim.

It means that South African pay-TV subscribers in future might be not be able to get all their must-watch premium TV shows and sport from, or on, one system, but will have to subscribe to various operators for different content packages.

It also means that lower-tiered viewers - for instance free-to-air viewers who have access to less sport content - might get to see more of those content through differently structured deals with pay-TV operators.

Imtiaz Patel, MultiChoice South Africa group CEO said on ANN7 he wants to correct the minister of communications. "All the best soccer in South Africa is available on SABC and all South African cricket played by the South African cricket team is also available on SABC mister minister so I hope you are listening."

TV news channels such as the new SABC News 'are a risk everywhere in the world,' says communications minister Yunus Carrim.

"The SABC needs to communicate more clearly that yes, the SABC News channel is starting on pay-TV but very soon it will be available on digital terrestrial television so that the masses out there can also benefit."

So says the minister of communications Yunus Carrim, who already took the SABC to task for its bad communication and said that the SABC needs to communicate more.

He doesn't feel that the SABC is doing a good enough job of marketing and communicating that the SABC News channel will be available for free once digital terrestrial television (DTT) starts in South Africa - a process delayed for many years now.

"The SABC is not meant to be elite, and we need to emphasize that more, so that we make it clear that the poor and the rural people will benefit even more than those who can pay for television," said Yunus Carrim about the new SABC News channel.

"The pay-TV platform affords the SABC access to decision makers who largely view the paid DStv platform," he said about the SABC News channel starting out on MultiChoice's satellite pay-TV platform.

"We also hope that this SABC News channel will give you the space to win back audience that have been failing, and to reach out to people who are your traditional viewers," he said in his address to SABC executives the about the launch of the new 24-hour news channel.

SABC News replaces the SABC's first attempt, SABC News International which was shut down after three years at the end of March 2010.

"Such 24-hour news channels are a risk everywhere in the world. It will obviously be a challenge but working together we can address them," said Yunus Carrim.

The SABC as a public broadcaster needs to communicate more, says minister of communications, Yunus Carrim.

South Africa's new minister of communications, Yunus Carrim, says the SABC should be communicating much more to viewers about what the broadcaster is doing.

On the SABC's new SABC News (DStv 404) 24-hour TV news channel Yunus Carrim said on Thursday evening that "the SABC is very, very challenged, but it is not as challenged as what is made out in the public domain."

"One of the tasks the SABC has is to communicate more about precisely what it's been able to achieve. I think if the SABC did so, the public out there would feel more confident," said Yunus Carrim.

BREAKING. SABC News channel launches 'with bottles of real champagne'; Lulama Mokhobo, SABC CEO, says 'tough task ahead'.

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The SABC, funded by MultiChoice with hundreds of millions of rands for the establishment of its new SABC News 24-hour channel on DStv channel 404, held a launch event on Thursday afternoon in Henley Studios where the SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo remarked that "for the first time in the history of the SABC I see bottles of real champagne".

The launch was attended by president Jacob Zuma, SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo, the SABC's acting chief operating officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Nolo Letele, the executive chairman of MultiChoice South Africa, Imtiaz Patel, the group CEO of MultiChoice South Africa, interim SABC chairperson Zandile Tshabalala, Lesotho's prime minister Thomas Thabane, the acting head of SABC news Jimi Matthews, South Africa's new minister of communications Yunus Carrim, and soccer boss Irvin Khoza.

Imtiaz Patel and Nolo Letele were called to the podium together with Eben Greyling, the CEO of pay-TV platforms of Naspers, but while the first two appeared Eben Greyling was nowhere to be seen.

President Jacob Zuma spoke and said the SABC 24 Hour News channel "must seize the opportunity to cover South Africa beyond crime and corruption".

Lulama Mokhobo, SABC CEO, who's speech was highly melodramatic at times and lavished effusive praise on president Jacob Zuma, said the SABC took note that "the SABC cannot continue to be lumbering and blundering along".

Lulama Mokhobo thanked the matricless Hlaudi Motsoeneng, saying "we've very grateful for your strange behaviour. We sometimes think: 'Is this man mad?' You're not caring who's standing in your path and you're ready to klap them. We thank you for your tenacity," said Lulama Mokhobo.

[Zandile Tshabala earlier said "sometimes I get jealous," referring to Hlaudi Motsoeneng,"he's more famous than the SABC."

"Jimi Matthews for the news team, for the unsung heroes, we know you have a tough task ahead," said Lulama Mokhobo. We also know the determination is going to carry us through - the cameramen, the journalists, the riggers - all those people working in the news room. And the channel managers who continue to make sure that we broadcast regardless of whether we're going through stormy seas," said Lulama Mokhobo.

"You made it happen even when the studios at the SABC burned down," Lulama Mokhobo said.

"Mister president, you might not be aware but you're sitting where it happened. People with sharp noses say they can still smell the smoke," said Lulama Mokhobo.

"Hlaudi Motsoeneng always throws curveballs and youre right, he is more famous than the SABC," said Imtiaz Patel.

"We're very proud to be here to finally witness the launch of the SABC News 24-hour channel," he said.

"SABC News channel gives the SABC immediate access to roughly 5 million homes, roughly 15 to 20 million viewers. This is a powerful platform from which they can garner lucrative advertising revenue - one of Hlaudi Motsoeneng's negotiating tactics," said Imtiaz Patel, calling Hlaudi Motsoeneng a "torch-bearer".

BREAKING. 'Excrusiatingly aware of the need to stabilise the SABC," says Yunus Carrim, the new minister of communications.

As South Africa's TV industry is breathing a collective sigh of relief after the firing of the scandal-riddled Dina Pule  as the minister of communications her replacement Yunus Carrim now says he is "excrusiatingly aware of the need to stabilise the SABC board and it's management. We need to improve its performance".

Yunus Carrim says "there is no reason why we cannot move with due expedition. We have these huge challenges and limited time, so we cannot afford not to move fast".

A day after the announcement that he is the fourth new minister of communications in South Africa in six years, Yunus Carrim said that "the plans for the SABC are not plans which I make alone" and admitted that the public's patience with the SABC is finished.

"We simply have no choice. The public out there, the business community, trade union movements and society have reached a limit of tolerance about the difficulties we have been having in the SABC. We are all committed to work with the public out there in turning around the SABC and the ITC sector."

BREAKING. Dina Pule fired as minister of communications; replaced by Yunus Carrim.

The embattled and scandal prone Dina Pule has been fired as South Africa's minister of communications by president Jacob Zuma who announced a cabinet reshuffle in Pretoria this afternoon and replaced Dina Pule with Yunus Carrim - making him South Africa's 4th minister of communications in 6 years.

Yunus Carrim will be sworn in as minister of communications on 10 July.

Yunus Carrim replaces Dina Pule who was appointed in October 2011. Dina Pule replaced Roy Padayachie who was the minister of communication for exactly a year, after he replaced the as controversial and out of touch Siphiwe Nyanda in October 2010 in another cabinet reshuffle. Siphiwe Nyanda replaced Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri who died in April 2009 in May 2009.

As South Africa's switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT), a process known as digital migration fell further and further behind and is currently the joke of the African continent, the embattled Dina Pule was mired in allegations of corruption and ongoing fights with the media and scandalous stories such as allegation that her boyfriend bought her Christian Louboutin shoes with funds meant for a telecommunications indaba.

Under Dina Pule's tenure as minister of communications the SABC once again imploded at top level with bitter in-fighting between the SABC board members which spilled into the public sphere and saw the resignations and decimation of the entire SABC board.

The public broadcaster currently sits with an emergency interim board, and with Dina Pule who was accused of undue ministerial interference into the operations of the public broadcaster.

Dina Pule is currently investigated by both parliament's ethics committee as well as by the public protector's office of Thuli Madonsela.

"Dina Pule failed dysmally," said Vuyo Mvoko, the SABC's contributing editor on the SABC's news bulletin on Tuesday evening. "Dina Pule didn't help things. She didn't even show a little effort which people could appreciate and say that maybe with time she could get better. With each week, with each month that passed by it was just a feeling that she was getting worse and worse and just getting a bigger liability."

BREAKING. SABC licence fee price hike coming; TV licence fee increasing by 6% to R265 from September.

An SABC licence fee hike of 6% is coming raising the cost of an annual SABC TV licence to R265 from 1 September 2013.

The owner of every TV set in South Africa is compelled by the Broadcasting Act to pay an annual SABC TV licence, which will increase from R250 to R265 from 1 September.

Concessionary TV licences, granted to those older than 70 as well as to receivers of social grants from the state, will be increased from R70 to R74.

The minister of communications, Dina Pule who today got fired by president Jacob Zuma and replaced by Yunus Carrim, approved the 6% television licence tariff increase effective from 1 September.

"This is only the fourth tariff increase the SABC has been granted over the past 14 years, with the last one having been in 2009," says the SABC.

The public broadcaster which has for years struggled to effective collect SABC licence fees, says "the new tariff works out to just over 70 cents a day".

The SABC says its licence fee revenue enables it to provide locally produced radio and television programmes "in a harsh economic environment characterised by fierce competition".

"Despite the rapidly changing broadcasting environment, no tariff increases were implemented since 2009. The broadcasting environment, compounded by the current economic climate and additional responsibilities placed on the SABC by digital migration makes the tariff increase inevitable. It is important to ensure that the public broadcaster delivers on its mandate without compromise," says the SABC in the statement announcing the tariff hike.