South Africans are up in arms after it was revealed that the national broadcaster now wants mense to pay licence fees for watching Netflix and DStv, even if it is on your phone.
The SABC this week said a regulation is needed that would require pay-TV service providers like MultiChoice (DStv) and Netflix to collect TV licences on behalf of the broadcaster.
In a presentation to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications, Deputy Communications Minister Pinky Kekana said the “outdated” definition of a TV licence needs to be adapted to fit current technologies.
Kekana indicated that TV licences could be expanded to include other devices, such as laptops and phones.
The SABC said that such a regulation would be similar to municipalities collecting traffic fines and motor vehicle licence discs.
“How do we, through Icasa, make sure that they too are able to assist us to collect TV licences, but we are not only limiting it to TV? We also have other platforms where people consume content and in all of those areas that is where we should look at how we are able to get SABC licence fees from those gadgets,” Kekana said.
Netflix has three plans for local viewers, from R99 to R169 per month.
A TV licence currently costs R265 per year.
One Twitter user said: “SABC is going against our human right by forcing us to pay TV licence through Netflix and Dstv because there stupid employees looted all the money, now all of us must suffer. (sic)”