SABC blackout warning

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is at risk of a blackout, with the government actively defunding the public broadcaster.

This is according to Media Monitoring Africa’s William Bird, who spoke to Newzroom Afrika following the SABC’s presentation to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, where it revealed that 9.2 million TV licence account holders owe the public broadcaster more than R44 billion.

Bird explained that Sentech is one of the biggest costs for broadcasters, including the SABC, and in the state broadcasters case, he believes the government should cover these costs.

“It should be something that is covered by the state frankly, and yet, the SABC is left to carry this enormous bill, and it’s one of the things that makes its model even less sustainable,” said Bird.

“The scenario is absolutely catastrophic. You have the SABC’s finances plummeting. You have government and parliament failing to do their job.”

“And then when the government doesn’t provide any kind of a bailout or a loan guarantee, you’re leaving the SABC in an impossible position. It’s not a stretch to think that we will be looking at a blackout,” he added.

The broadcaster narrowly avoided a blackout in the past year, according to a News24 report.

SABC chairperson Khathutshelo Ramukumba said the board was confronted with an advisory from management warning of a potential day zero where the SABC may not have been able to pay employee salaries.

Bird explained that with it being an election year, the public should be demanding why they are actively defunding the public broadcaster and not making sure it can operate sustainably.

Regarding the way forward, he explained that the concept of a public levy to replace the current TV licence scheme isn’t unreasonable.

“We have to say ‘how do we fund it?’, and one of the ways is through a public levy, and that’s not an unreasonable idea; it’s just about how it’s implemented and where it gets collected,” said Bird.

“When SABC was approached several years ago under the previous board, they put forward clear concrete and urgent proposals for the government to look at and review so that they could address its financial situation.”

“They failed to do any of those things,” he added.

In its presentation to parliament, the SABC revealed its five-year plan to exit its financial crisis, which involves increasing revenue by 28% to R6.4 billion between 2024 and 2025.

It said this would come from increased advertising revenue, sponsorships, and TV licence income.

This could be challenging, with the state broadcaster’s audience ratings dropping by 40% over the past seven years.

It also owes Sentech roughly R745 million for signal distribution services.

“It’s quite a big concern. The SABC is losing money. In the previous financial year, it lost about R1 billion. Now, it has already lost almost R500 million,” said Uyanda Siyotula, coordinator of the Support Public Broadcasting Coalition.

“It’s definitely not going to afford to pay the R745 million that is owed to Sentech.”

Despite this, the public broadcaster believes it can turn things around and even turn a profit of as much as R970 million in the 2026/27 financial year.

“They’re trying to do their best,” said Bird. “You would recently have seen that they’ve done a deal with the BBC for example.”

“When you’re in a position where your audiences are declining because all the best programming isn’t on your channel because you can’t afford it, people are going to leave you.”

“And then if your news is going to be undermined by interference efforts, it means people have even less reason to go there.”

He described the plan as the SABC trying to produce miracles in an incredibly tough environment.