The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s new Must Carry regulations are a result of an enquiry in terms of Section 60(3) of the Electronic Communications Act of 2005 (as amended), regarding the imposition of Must Carry Obligations on subscription broadcasting services.
The purpose of the Must Carry regulations is to prescribe regulations regarding the extent to which subscription broadcast services must carry, subject to commercially negotiable terms, the television programmes provided by a public broadcasting service licensee.
ICASA has issued a second set of regulations which address contributions to the Universal Service Access Fund. In terms of the regulations, every licensee will have to contribute to the Fund 0.2% of the annual turnover derived from the licensee’s licence activity. The private electronic communications networks which resell additional capacity will also have to contribute to the Fund 0.2% based on the annual revenue derived from reselling that additional capacity.
Furthermore, a broadcasting service licensee who has paid an annual contribution to the MDDA must set off that contribution against its prescribed annual contribution to the Fund.
The publication of the two regulations follows a consultative process in which interested parties were consulted to ensure that the outcomes address the needs of the industry.
