By Derrick Spies
Plans are being put in place to establish a community television station for the Eastern Cape, but there are still a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome before this becomes a reality.
This was the message at a provincial stakeholders’ consultative workshop which was hosted at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) on Wednesday.
The workshop, which was attended by a number of independent producers, representatives from district municipalities and universities, as well as other role players, focused on establishing a case for an Eastern Cape Community Television initiative.
Cape Town television station director Karen Thorne (SUBS CORR) said they had faced significant challenges during their first year of operation, including going off air for some time because of a lack of funds.
Thorne said Their operating costs for the first year were around R4.5million, which she said was “not nearly enough”.
Also on the panel were representatives from Soweto Television, Bay Community Television based in Richards Bay and Tshwane Television, which has yet to go air despite having had its licence since February.
All spoke of the challenges they had faced, including the difficulties in obtaining broadcasting licences from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Among the main challenges highlighted by all four community television representatives were concerns that community television would be left behind in the crossover from analogue to digital.
“This is a major concern for us, as there are rumours that Sentech does not want to invest in further infrastructure to support analogue broadcast, yet all community stations are still on analogue and no provision has been made for us as part of the digital spectrum,” said Thorne.
Sentech was, however, notably absent from the event, despite being allocated a slot on the programme.
Aside from the Sentech issue, Project Director for the Media Development and Diversity Agency Harry Letsebe (SUBS CORR) identified three other key areas that needed to be focused on in order for the concept to succeed in the Eastern Cape.
These were the model the organisation would take, the funding required and the necessary partnerships which would have to be formed.
One structure, proposed by Xola Nozewu (SUBS CORR) of Vukani (SUBS CORR) community radio station, which was well received at the meeting, was to establish individual media centres within the various districts which would produce local content.
“We are proposing to produce in the region of six hours of content a week that will profile the Chris Hani district, which can then be aired on an Eastern Cape community television station.”
Asked if the Eastern Cape should rather wait for clarity on the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Bill new bill and the issues around digitisationdigitalisation to be resolved before implementing a community television strategy, Thorne said no.
“The Eastern Cape should have started this process five, 10, ten even 15 fifteen years ago. It is no good delaying it; if you wait there simply won’t be any space for you at all,” she said
