Licences in the secondary markets
26 April 2007
Good afternoon
Applicants
Members of the media
Stakeholders
Colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocols observed and welcome to Icasa
My name is Paris Mashile, the Chairperson of the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa and I would like to thank you all for being here
today to share with Icasa and the South African communications sector, the
attainment of another milestone in South African broadcasting and in particular
the commercial broadcasting sector. With me today I have Councillors Zolisa
Masiza and Tracy Cohen who were the councillors delegated to a Committee of
Council to hold hearings and evaluate applications for Commercial Sound
Broadcasting licences in the secondary markets. Councillor Masiza chaired the
process from inception and will shortly be announcing the outcome of the
process.
It may be useful for those new to the process to have a sense of where this
all began and to what has culminated today. Section two of the now repealed IBA
Act enjoined Icasa to, among other things:
* promote the provision of a diverse range of sound and television broadcasting
services on national, regional and local level which, when viewed collectively,
cater for all language and cultural groups and provide entertainment, education
and information
* promote the development of public, private and community broadcasting
services, which are responsive to the needs of the public
* encourage ownership and control of broadcasting services by persons from
historically disadvantaged groups
* ensure that private and community broadcasting services, viewed collectively,
are controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of
communities in the Republic
* ensure fair competition between broadcasting licensees.
In furtherance of these objects, on 13 January 2004, the Authority published
a Position Paper on the Review of Ownership and Control of Broadcasting
Services and Existing Commercial Sound Broadcasting Licenses. In terms of this
Position Paper, the Authority made a commitment that it would licence
commercial sound broadcasters in the Secondary Markets. The Secondary Markets
were defined in the Position Paper as being geographical markets, including
mainly metropolitan areas, outside the primary markets. I will now hand over to
Councillor Masiza, Chairperson of the Secondary Markets Committee of Council to
further detail the legislative framework and to outline the process and make
the announcement of the preferred applicants.
Thank you and welcome everyone.
On 8 April 2005, the Authority published an invitation to apply in the
Government Gazette under section 41 (1), (2) and (3) of the then Independent
Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act, inviting interested parties to apply for
commercial sound broadcasting licenses in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Northern
Cape and the North West province. The ITA stated that only one licence would be
issued in respect of each one of these provinces. The ITA also set out the
material aspects of the application process, including the closing date for the
submission of applications, application fees, the available frequencies and the
application form. The ITA specified that applicants were required to conduct an
economic feasibility study which had to be supplied together with the
application in order to demonstrate the viability of the intended commercial
broadcasting service. The application form referred prospective applicants to
the IBA Act, the Broadcasting Act, the Icasa Act, the Private Sound
Broadcasting Position Paper, the Review Paper, existing commercial broadcasting
licences and regulations and guidelines published by the Authority in relation
to commercial sound broadcasting services.
On 19 July 2006, the Electronic Communications Act, ("the ECA") came into
force and repealed the IBA Act. Section 92 (7) of the ECA provides that any
processes and applications pending before the Authority upon the coming into
effect of the ECA must be considered in terms of the relevant provisions of the
ECA. The Authority therefore dealt with the Secondary Markets applications in
terms of the relevant provisions of the ECA and applicants were given an
opportunity to raise any points at the hearings regarding the effect of the ECA
if any on their applications. The Authority received a total of 11 applications
from only three of the four provinces, namely:
Limpopo:
* Rawlingwood Investments (Proprietary) Limited (Capricorn FM)
* Radio Limpopo Consortium (Radio Limpopo)
* Radio Mapungubwe Consortium (Radio Mapungubwe)
* Limpopo FM (Proprietary) Limited (Limpopo FM)
* Twelve o' Twelve FM
Mpumalanga:
* M-Power Radio (Proprietary) Limited (M-Power FM)
* Mpumalanga Radio Consortium (1-FM)
* Evening Star (Proprietary) Limited (Heartland Stereo)
*
North West:
* Platinum FM (Proprietary) Limited (Platinum FM)
* North West Consortium (Radio North West)
* Yired (Proprietary) Limited [YFM (North West)]
Subsequently one applicant, Radio Mapungubwe Consortium (Radio Mapungubwe)
from Limpopo province withdrew its application and eventually the Authority
considered four applications from Limpopo province and 10 applications in all.
Just a note on the process, in terms of Section 17 of the Icasa Act, the
council of Icasa appointed a Committee of Council ("the Committee"), comprising
of Councillors Zolisa Masiza and Tracy Cohen, to consider applications and
conduct hearings in terms of Section 9 (2) (e) of the Electronic Communications
Act. The committee conducted hearings from 16 to 23 August 2006 in
Johannesburg. During the course of the hearings, applicants were given an
opportunity to make oral presentations in support of their respective
applications. The committee questioned applicants on various aspects of their
applications. Persons who had made written representations in respect of
particular applications were afforded the opportunity to make oral submissions
on the applications concerned.
In such instances, the relevant applicants were allowed to respond to such
submissions. Subsequent to the hearings, the committee afforded the applicants
an opportunity to submit further information to clarify certain aspects of
their respective applications. The Committee further afforded the parties who
had made submissions at the hearings, the opportunity to make written
submissions on the additional information submitted by the applicants. The
Committee also afforded the applicants the opportunity to respond to such
representations. In instances where an applicant submitted totally new
information which on the face of it materially changed the applicant's original
application, the Committee reserved the right to accept or reject such
information.
After the Committee had finalised its analysis and deliberations, it then
made recommendations to the council in respect of the successful applicants for
council's decision. The Council has now considered the recommendations and the
findings of the Committee and is ready to announce the successful applicants. I
will read to the province and the applicant in order:
* Limpopo province: Capricorn FM
* Mpumalanga province: M-Power Radio
* North West province: Radio North West.
The lack of applications from the Northern Cape province has raised a major
cause for concern and all the relevant questions have been asked, what is the
situation in the Northern Cape, what has happened, who is responsible for doing
or not doing certain things? The reasons for looking into these issues are to
get more clarity on the state of play in the Northern Cape. This is in line
with our mandate of licensing broadcasters across the country, taking into
account the different groups.
The reasons for the Authority's decision will be available at Icasa's
library and Icasa's website in due course. I would like to thank the team that
made this possibleâSei Mukoma, Winnie Tlale, Herbet Fischat, Paseka Maleka,
Blondie Rapholo, Gugu Maziko, Bethuel Makola, Ngwako Serumula, Khethiwe Kubheka
from Khethiwe Marketing and Councillor Cohen. The successful applicants are
required to indicate to the Authority the possible dates when they anticipate
their switch on date so that licence obligations maybe finalised. On behalf of
Icasa, we wish the successful applicants luck in their endeavours and remind
you that you have been entrusted with a national resource aimed at bettering
the lives of people in the respective provinces in line with the objects of the
Act and the ECA. We wish you well.
Thank you
Issued by: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
26 April 2007
Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (http://www.icasa.org.za)
