The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on Friday published the findings of a discussion document on South Africa’s television and radio local content environment.

Icasa last year requested industry input as it reviewed and revamped “outdated” television and radio content regulations from a single-channel analogue base to a multichannel digital platform.

The findings of the ‘South African Local Content on Television and Radio Regulations’ discussion document revealed that, while South Africa’s ongoing digital terrestrial television (DTT) migration would bring about significant opportunities, it also placed significant pressure on broadcasters to produce more content.

Broadcasters raised concern over the impact the migration period would have on the viability of terrestrial broadcasters and their financial capacity to meet requirements, particularly in light of the significant amount of content that would be required to fill all the channels on the DTT platform.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said provisions should be made for an extended period for content acquirement.

Icasa said other broadcasters highlighted that “excessively high” local content quotas could lead to a higher number of repeat programmes and undermine the viability of the broadcasters.

A duplication of shows into different languages on different channels could ease the amount of time and resources required for one production; however, the SABC pointed out that there was no guarantee the duplicated show would be well received by all the languages groups to be catered for.

The public broadcaster proposed that Icasa set the local content percentage based on audience to ensure financial sustainability, as well as reduce local content regulations and allow incubation during the dual illumination period necessary for DTT migration.

Many of South Africa’s broadcasters requested the regulator either adopt a “cross-bouquet approach” rather than per-channel regulation or maintain local content quotas.

“They argued that current per-channel obligations and quotas were designed for a single-channel, analogue environment, and cannot simply be transposed onto a multichannel digital environment, as this restricts broadcasters' ability to optimise their multichannel offering and the cost of compliance is multiplied by the number of channels affected,” Icasa said.