We are family: SABC vows to sing from muso hymn sheet
When will artists benefit from national broadcaster’s push for local content, asks
THE recent decision by the SABC to play 90% local content through its 18 radio stations must be seen in the context of anti-dumping tariffs in various sectors of the economy, which are intended to protect local manufacturers. In this light, the move — effective immediately — makes sense.
Local broadcast content preference is not unusual. Countries with as little in common economically as Australia, Canada and Bulgaria have rules in place to encourage a majority of local content in their broadcast mix.
South African musicians have a decades-long archive of wellproduced content that can slot into the SABC’s platforms, but some stations will struggle more to preserve their formats than others.
Programming at Zulu radio station Ukhozi FM, for example, could remain largely unchanged because its current ratio of local music is already high, but the impact for stations such as 5FM, which targets young people by “keeping its finger on the global pulse”, and Lotus FM, which describes itself as a national Indian radio station, may be more serious.
Lotus FM has begun playing artists such as Mandoza.
Station managers were unable to respond to questions this week about content changes and referred queries to SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago, who said no station would be exempt and they would have to adapt or find local substitutes in their given genres.
“The idea is not to change the feel or structures. Many of our stations were playing a lot of local content anyway — up to 80%. This is not a trial run. It is a decision that has been made. We review our programming every three months anyway, so we’ll review as we go, like any other part of our business.”
Kganyago said that in its role as public service broadcaster, the SABC was only partly commercial and had an obli- gation to boost the local industry — whether that made strict commercial sense or not.
“We have a mandate to deal with cultural issues. Our music is not inferior and this is the situation if you travel anywhere else in the world. We don’t hate international music, we just love our own more.”
Responding to accusations from some smaller local record labels that the SABC’s submission, acceptance and rotation policies were either unclear or prevented smaller players from gaining an airplay foothold, Kganyago said stations had to play “good” music.
“The challenge is with musicians to produce good music. They know which qualities determine that. We cannot be a dumping ground. We have good musicians. We have the Hugh Masekelas of this world. We don’t want to fall into a trap of playing every track that comes our way.”
If that leaves the door open for more local artists to get a slice of the cake, David du Plessis, CEO of needletime royalty collection agency the South African Music Performance Rights Association, said there was some way to go in getting the SABC and other broadcasters to pay what it owed to local and international performers and labels.
Needletime royalties, which are paid to musicians and record labels for the broadcasting of their tracks, were reintroduced into South African law in 2002 and, since March 2014, the specific rate for broadcasters has been stipulated by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
However, on Thursday the SABC said it had decided to raise its royalty payments above the 3% level set by the courts to 4%, and to set parity at 4% for all royalty collection agencies.
There are various categories of royalties paid to musicians, composers and copyright holders.
But so far, Du Plessis said, the SABC had not paid a cent for needletime royalties. Neither had Kagiso Media or Primedia, owners of other local stations.
And getting local retailers to provide playlists from their inhouse radio stations and pay needletime royalties has also been an uphill struggle.
He said Sampra was forced to use expensive monitoring services to get around the lack of volunteered information.
“The SABC and other broadcasters are supposed to pay a pro rata royalty percentage of up to the previous maximum of 3% of advertising revenue to broadcast recordings of foreign or local rights holders, depending on the level of music usage of each station.
“Over and above that are rights for the reproduction of the composition and the broadcasting of the composition.”
Sampra and the South African Music Rights Organisation issue blanket licences covering their entire repertoire.
If the SABC plays content contained in these licences — local or international — it pays according to its usage, at a flat rate of what will now be 4%.
This means performers’ and composers’ royalties move in flux with the advertising revenue that the SABC pulls in. But Du Plessis couldn’t say how much the SABC owed because he had not seen its books.
Du Plessis and Samro’s Pfanani Lishivha both said the tariffs the SABC and retailers were paying were at the low end of the range in global terms.
Du Plessis said that although Samro was being paid by the SABC for royalties covering compositions, Sampra continued to engage with the National Association of Broadcasters and the SABC on unpaid needletime royalties.
Kganyago said there had been discussions around needletime royalty payment and disagreebuy ments, but now that the issues had been resolved and a 4% figure had been settled, the SABC would start paying.
“It’s a process. We can’t say when. There’s a lot that needs to happen in the admin process.”
Michelle Sampson, chief financial officer at Primedia Broadcasting, said: “Primedia has been in discussions with Sampra since the 2014 ruling to establish the mechanism for billing royalties. We look forward to concluding [these] soon.”
Kagiso Media did not respond to requests for comment on why it had not paid needletime royalties.
Samro’s Tiyani Maluleke said the SABC should be congratulated, since artists whose works were played more frequently would benefit.
Musician Sipho Hotstix Mabuse said that other parties, including advertisers, needed to into the policy.
“Then there are listeners. A lot of South African music thrived through the cultural boycotts and there were 120 000 people at Concert in the Park in 1985 . . . This needs to have an impact and reignite interest in local music. It may sound extreme but I don’t think there’s a downside. We just need to be competitive in our output.
“I do agree there is a question over who is ratifying the quality of the music presented to the SABC. There is a lot of great talent not being heard.”
Gallo Record Company general manager Neil Greenberg said this was an opportunity for local labels to work on new releases. He said Gallo licensed what it felt was commercially viable. “We’re still active as an independent label finding new talent. If you have something hit-worthy it will get accepted. But there is also a lot that must be done to support rotation, like marketing, through social media and ‘groundswell’. We need to see how this pans out, but we’re optimistic.” Comment on this: write to letters@businesstimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.sundaytimes.co.za
We don’t hate international music, we just love our own more We can’t say when. A lot needs to happen in the admin process