Developing Community Television in South Africa

This is an article on South Africa’s community television (CTV).

Excerpts from the full article:

"There are a range of interesting options to widen television broadcasting options in South Africa that have been enabled by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), among them the development of local, community-owned television.

There is room in South Africa for alternative broadcasts that are focused on local issues, carrying programming that is innovative, experimental, diverse and responsive to the needs of communities. Local or community television stations can do just this, providing a distinct alternative to the traditional broadcasting models followed by our existing broadcasters...

"In the South African context, for CTV to be economically viable it must follow the broadcast imperative of reaching the widest possible audience. This could be achieved through local broadcasts to a metropolitan area or by national broadcasting to a country-wide community. Communities of interest may be geographically non-local, so national or international communities may also be reached through broadcast or Internet technologies...

"ICASA has determined that community broadcasting must be informational, educational and entertaining. It is intended to focus on the provision of programmes that highlight grassroots community issues, including developmental issues, health care, basic information and general education, environmental affairs, local interest matters and the reflection of local culture.

Under South African law a community broadcasting service must service a particular geographic or interest community, partly by encouraging people within or associated with that community to participate in programme selection and production. Financially, the station may be funded by combinations of donations, grants, sponsorships or advertising or membership fees...

"One model of CTV broadcasting for South African conditions is based on public access television practiced in the USA and Canada.

In these countries public access television is supported by legislation that forces cable television companies (to the chagrin of cable executives) to grant a portion of their profits to local public access stations. This is because freedom of speech is enshrined in their constitutions and the idea that cable TV companies would otherwise have a monopoly on local broadcasting runs counter to this notion. Moreover cable television fibre optic delivery networks run under public roads and other city infrastructure, so the quid pro quo is for the cable companies to provide citizens with access to their broadcasting setups.

These public access stations allow individuals and organisations access to training, production and broadcast facilities. This democratic mechanism is supported by programming and financial contributions from educational institutions and local government - the PEG (Public, Education, Government) model.

In South Africa there is no similar mechanism to support public access television broadcasting. While government could force the existing players to support community television in some way, another option is to include a commercial component into a CTV station, in the same way that community radio stations are able to derive income from advertising - a C-PEG model of broadcasting.

Of course this necessitates that local government and educational institutions buy into the idea of communication through local broadcasting. A community television station should be supported by a range of contributors because this would prevent any one sector from dominating the station. For example while government would be able to project its messages into communities it would not be able to control the broadcaster as its sole financier.

This suggests that a community television broadcaster would be a partnership between different interest groups such as educational institutions, NGOs, local government and community groups such as women, youth, workers, the aged, sports organisations and video production groups...

"Community television is a viable option for South Africa. It is a developmental tool that can deal with issues that the other media cannot or will not attend to. Most importantly, community television can serve as an empowering medium that allows local participation, training and ownership in a way that public and commercial broadcasting does not..."