South Africa: National African Chamber of Commerce takes on big players over digital TV plans

The advent of digital television in South Africa may be delayed by a legal bid to stop Icasa from allowing the SABC, M-Net and e.tv to broadcast more channels.

 

Tomorrow the black-owned Nafcoc Broadcasting Consortium will lodge papers in the High Court in Johannesburg to stop the regulator from implementing "unfair and anti-competitive" Digital Terrestrial Television regulations.

 

They say it will entrench the monopoly held by current broadcasters. It is, effectively, an attempt to stop Icasa from allowing the SABC, M-Net and e.tv to add more channels to their digital bandwidth.

 

The consortium is led by the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) and features smaller black businesses, some of whom are independent television producers, who want a slice of the digital pie.

 

Minister of communications Siphiwe Nyanda, the SABC, e.tv and M-Net will also be listed as respondents. In his 1700-page affidavit, of which the Sunday Times has a copy, Lawrence Mavundla, the president of Nafcoc, is asking the court to review and set aside Icasa's regulations - which state that the digital migration process be finalised by April 2012, with analogue signals set to be switched off by November 2011.

 

Until then, broadcasters are allowed a period of "dual illumination" in which they can transmit their channels on both analogue and digital format.

 

According to Icasa - and as an incentive to encourage South Africans to buy set-top boxes or special decoders to acquire digital television - the broadcasters are entitled to operate "digital incentive channels ... for which they will not have to apply for licences".

 

In his affidavit, Mavundla described this as "preferential treatment", adding it was "highly troubling, most notably from competition laws and BBBEE perspectives".

 

Mavundla said the benefits to the "incumbent channels will potentially last indefinitely and will result in a permanent distortion of competition in a market in which certain players already have market power".

 

In the papers, Mavundla also revealed how they had tried to lobby Nyanda and Icasa officials without much success.

 

Digital terrestrial television services kicked off in late 2008 and South Africa has until 2015 to switch off its analogue broadcasting signal.

 

If this deadline is not met then, its frequency will not be protected by the International Telecommunications Union.

 

Spokesman for Nafcoc, Andisa Ramavhunga, said the consortium was forced to go the legal route given the "arrogance" of Icasa.

 

"Icasa has arrogantly ignored the concerns of the consortium and has proceeded to regulate."

 

He said Icasa's decision had "far-reaching consequences and has to be challenged". "This is not a banana republic where you just dish out licences when it suits you," he said.

 

"The court challenge is based on five factors. They are procedural unfairness, irrational justification and allocation of additional broadcast channels to incumbents (over and above the channels for migration), the licensing process, anti-competition and disregard of ... South Africa's BBBEE regulations."

 

Digital broadcasting uses up far less spectrum than analogue, and therefore frees up airwaves for more broadcasters to join the party - or for expanded cellular networks and wireless broadband.

 

Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka was unable to comment. "Should the legal action be instituted, the authority will study the documents and deal with the issues accordingly."

 

Asked if any legal challenge would halt the country's digital migration process, he said: "This will depend on how the process unfolds."

 

-March 28, 2010 by Buddy Naidu

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Source: www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article377007.ece/Nafcoc-squares-up-to-big-broadcasters (accessed on 29.03.10)