Last week South Africans took to social media to voice their upset about the new “TV Licence” which would force the public to pay for watching TV on their mobile devices like cellphones and computers…
But the SABC have hit back in a statement saying that the story about the new TV licence was a misconception and untrue.
The national broadcaster said it only wanted to relook at how a TV set was defined in the Broadcasting Act.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “We need to be mindful that TV viewing has transformed drastically over the last few years.”
The media uproar started last week when SABC acting chief executive James Aguma told Parliament the broadcaster wanted changes made to the Broadcasting Act to make it mandatory for people to pay a TV licence for more devices they viewed content on.
He said they were budgeting for lower revenue from licences this year, but if the act was changed, it would broaden its collection base for TV licences which in the bigger scheme of things, only makes up 12% of their total revenue.
The entire incident sent social media into a frenzy with people voicing their anger and sharing their thoughts on the matter.
https://twitter.com/LEBENFOUR/status/862289291287908353
#SABC wants billions of rands from taxpayers money so that they give it to Gupta channel ann7 we can't allow such nonsense
— I'm proudly African (@FanieTk) May 10, 2017
We'all pay TV license for our phones 📱, laptops 💻 and tabs when these stones become soft #SABC pic.twitter.com/CJhh8IXWId
— Whalen (@Gospel_guru_SA) May 10, 2017
So the answer as to whether we would need to pay for a new TV licence for all our extra screens… is no. For now anyway. We’ll keep you posted should anything change next week.
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