Government wants to level the playing field between streaming services in South Africa - and bring the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus and others under local regulation.
On-demand and digital streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus may soon have to be licenced to continue operating and providing services in South Africa – and be more strictly subjected to local content regulations.
Cutting through the policy talk, one of the key issues the draft paper wants to tackle is that of licencing and of content providers – local and international – operating in South Africa. This includes killing older definitions of broadcasters and redefining them in terms of “audio and audio-visual content services”.
“There are three broad types of AAVCS using electronic communication networks and which will fall within the new proposed regulatory framework. These are linear broadcasting services, non-linear on-demand content services and video sharing platform services . The first two types require licensing, and the third type VSPS is exempt from licensing, but not from regulation,” it said.
However, if the very same service were to grow over time to have either large audience numbers or an annual turnover of R100 million or greater, it would have to apply for an Individual licence and attract higher levels of regulation and public interest obligations.If the AAVCS is on a managed network in a gated estate , it would not use radio frequency spectrum at all and if the annual turnover and other considerations by the would be exempt from the requirement to apply for a licence.
However, if the service grew in popularity in South Africa and attracted significant audience numbers or annual turnover in the preceding year was R100 million or greater, it would have to apply for an Individual licence and attract higher levels of regulation and public interest obligation.
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