South Africa: MultiChoice accused of missing Icasa deadline

A dispute has arisen over whether MultiChoice met an Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) deadline for the hotly contested digital mobile TV service license, with two applicants saying it handed in its application late.

 

Business Day, a local media, reported on 11 May 2010, that MultiChoice is considered by many to be the favourite for the first "multiplex" for which applications were invited. A multiplex is a broadcast offering of several TV channels, in this case 12. One requirement for the first multiplex is that applicants have an existing broadcast service license.

 

MultiChoice has been testing mobile TV with cellphone providers for at least two years.

 

The process has been ridden with conflict for Icasa, which is under pressure to select a mobile provider in time for the Soccer World Cup, which starts on 11 June 2010.

 

There was an unsuccessful court bid by the Mobile TV Consortium last week to force Icasa to scrap the application process and go back to the drawing board on the grounds that it discouraged competition and was biased towards those with existing broadcast service licenses.

 

Kagiso Media, another applicant, requested more time for companies to make submissions, arguing - as the Mobile TV Consortium did - that three weeks was not sufficient time to make a proper submission.

 

Now two of the applicants, Super 5 Media and the Mobile TV Consortium, have alleged that MultiChoice did not make the 4pm deadline on 7 May 2010 as stipulated in the invitation to apply.

 

Khulile Boqwana, Super 5 Media senior manager for economic regulation, told Business Day on 10 May 2010 that he was standing at Icasa's licensing unit at 3.50pm when a call came through to say that one of the applicants was running late.

 

"At 4.10pm the applicant from MultiChoice arrived in a Mini Cooper at Block B carrying just two submissions instead of the required 25 copies, which was accepted by Icasa licensing broadcast manager Thabo Ndhlovu. The MultiChoice employee said the rest was in his car.

 

"This is a competitive process and it's expected that Icasa will accept all submissions, but it would be expected that the selection committee, which is required to assess if applicants met the minimum requirements, will reject the application before it is handed over to the councilors," he said.

 

A Mobile TV Consortium employee said he saw a MultiChoice employee getting documents out of his car at 4.20pm. Both companies voiced their objections to MultiChoice's late arrival on 7 May 2010.

 

MultiChoice on 10 May 2010 denied that its application was late.

 

Jackie Rakitla, MultiChoice GM of corporate affairs, said on 10 May 2010: "MultiChoice would like to confirm that it has submitted its application for (the) mobile TV licence on time. We are aware of the complaint and we dispute the allegation that we submitted our application late."

 

However, Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka said: "The authority has not received any complaint about the applicant with regard to this process." An announcement would be made about compliance with prescribed preliminary requirements, he said.

 

- May 11, 2010 by Reagan Malumo

.................

 

Source: www.misa.org (received via Email Alert on 12.05.2010)