Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa
Promises, promises
In April 2019, the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services promised to license 10 community radio stations before the end of that year.
This promise was broken, as 2019 ended with no such licence having been issued.
New promises
The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services has made a new promise, this time saying as many as 40 community radio stations will be granted licences, along with television channels, by August 2020.
This promise was made by Ministry officials during the commemoration of World Radio Day in Gweru on February 12, 2020.
What are the promises?
· At least 6 independent television channels to be licenced by August 2020.
· 6 additional television channels to be availed for ZBC.
· 40 community radio stations to be licenced, 19 of which will be reserved for institutions of higher learning.
In preparation for the call for licensing, government gazetted Statutory Instrument 39 of 2020, outlining the Broadcasting Services (Community and Campus Radio Broadcasting Services) Regulations, 2020.
Definition of terms
The gazetted instrument gives definition of the various licences that will be issued. These include:
Campus radio broadcasting service – means a radio station run and owned by a college, university or other educational institution whose programming is exclusively by students or the community within which the radio station is based and broadcasts mainly educational programmes for training of students in media and broadcasting studies.
Community – for the purposes of licensing, a community means a group of people bound together in nature, with share norms, values and tradition whose control is domiciled in members of that geographical space
Community broadcasting service – refers to a free to air broadcasting service not operated for profit or as part of a profit making enterprise which provides programmes that, among other specifications, do not broadcast programmes or advertisements on behalf of any political party.
Fees
The application fees for the various broadcasting services were gazetted under Statutory Instrument 27 of 2020.
Free to Air National Radio Broadcasting Service
(a) Application Fee Initial $42 500,00 (non-refundable)
(b) Application Fee Public Inquiry $127 500,00 (non-refundable)
(c) Basic Licence Fee for ten years $255 000,00 per annum
(d) Annual licence fees 2% annual gross turnover or deemed turnover payable monthly for the licence period
(e) Frequency Fee $510,00 per frequency per site per month
(f) Broadcasting Fund A contribution of 0.5% of the audited annual gross turnover or deemed turnover payable annually
Free to Air National Television Broadcasting Service
(a) Application Fee initial $42 500,00 (non-refundable)
(b) Application Fee Public Inquiry $127 500,00 (non-refundable)
(c) Basic Licence Fee for ten years $306 000,00 per annum
(d) Annual licence fees 2% annual gross turnover or deemed turnover per annum payable monthly for the licence period
(e) Frequency Fee—
(i) Analogue . . . . . . $1 700,00 per frequency per site per month
(ii) Digital . . . . . . . $340,00 per frequency per site per month
(f) Broadcasting Fund A contribution of 0.5% of the audited annual gross turnover or deemed turnover payable annually
Community Broadcasting Licence
(a) Application Fee $8 500,00 (non-refundable)
(b) Basic Licence Fee for ten years $17 000,00 per annum
(c) Monthly Frequency Fee $510,00 per frequency per month
Free to air Campus Broadcasting Service
(a) Application Fee $21 250,00 (non-refundable)
(b) Basic Licence Fee for ten years $42 500,00 per annum
(c) Monthly frequency fee $510,00 per frequency per month
Conclusion:
The government has already broken its initial promise to licence 10 community radio stations by the end of 2019. It remains to be seen if the new promise, to issue licences by August 2020, will be kept.
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