Inquiry into Subscription Television Broadcasting Services

Posted by LA Thornton on Tuesday, August 29, 2017

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has published a Discussion Document in its Inquiry into Subscription Television Broadcasting Services. This is the inquiry that must proceed regulations that -

1. define markets,
2. determine if there is ineffective competition in those markets,
3. identify licensees with significant market power in those markets, and
4. impose appropriate pro-competitive licence conditions on licensees with significant market power.

The following markets are proposed by Icasa.

Wholesale content:
premium movies
live soccer
live rugby
live cricket
other premium content
non-premium content
Wholesale channel:
basic tier
premium tier
Retail:
basic tier
premium tier
Wholesale technical services

Icasa has preliminarily assessed the markets identified and views them as possibly ineffectively competitive.

Without saying as much, it also identified Multichoice/DSTv as having significant market power.

The pro-competitive licence conditions proposed by Icasa include: