Communications and Digital Technologies welcome Cabinet approval of  Draft White Paper on Audio and Visual Content Services Policy Framework

Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has welcomed the Cabinet approval of the draft White Paper on Audio and Visual Content Services Policy Framework.  On Wednesday Cabinet approved the draft, the next step now is for the department to go on provincial consultations before the bill is finalised.

This Paper proposes policy and regulatory changes and makes recommendations to reposition the audio-visual media sector for future growth and investment promotion. More importantly, the Paper emphasises the review of the following pertinent elements:

  • Sports broadcasting rights matters,
  • Promotion of foreign direct investment within the Broadcasting sector.
  • Licensing of the Over The Top Services (OTT’s)   
  • Competition issues in relation to pay-tv and free-to-air markets
  • Availability of spectrum for the transmission of audio-visual content  
  • Skills development to fastrack digital transformation within the audio-visual sector
     

“There is a growing need to level the playing field between traditional broadcasting, on-demand services providers – these includes catch-up TV service, video on-demand services as well as news portals – and video-sharing platforms. It has been quite a journey to get this draft White Paper to this stage. We are steadily moving towards the implementation stage now,” said Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams.

Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams also welcomes the appointment of Mr Trevor Rammitiwa as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA). The appointment of the new CEO at NEMISA comes at a time when the entity is repositioning itself to be the national digital skills training institute.

Enquiries: Mish Molakeng: 082 469 3997 Spokesperson for the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies

 

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