Pretoria – The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) hereby announces the extension of the closing for public comments on the Discussion Document in respect of an inquiry into the effectiveness of the Must-Carry Regulations; and whether there is a need for amendment of these regulations. The Discussion Document was published on 13 December 2019 with the submission date of 06 March 2020.

In order to carry out this regulatory exercise, ICASA is inviting all interested stakeholders including licensees, consumers and consumer groups, civil society organisations and other community-based organisations to make their submissions into this process by 31 March 2020 so as to enable ICASA to reach a comprehensive and accurate conclusion on the effectiveness of these regulations and consequently decide whether the current Regulations require any amendment.

The Must Carry Regulations are meant to, among others, regulate the extent to which the Subscription Broadcasting Services (SBS) must carry the television programmes provided by the Public Broadcast Service Licensee (PBS); and to provide the terms and conditions under which the SBS licensees will carry the television programmes of the PBS licensee.

These regulations are driven by a policy objective of ensuring that PBS television programming is available to all South Africans, including those that use subscription services as their preferred means of access to television content.
The information and submissions received in respect of this process will be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of the Must Carry Regulations on licensees and consumers.
The Discussion Document is available here.

For all media enquiries please contact:
Paseka Maleka
Tel : 012 568 3455
Cell : 079 509 0702
Email: pmaleka@icasa.org.za