Amendments of statutory instrument to the broadcasting services regulations gazetted

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe Board has issued out a new set of broadcasting service regulations in terms of its powers as defined by section 46 of the Broadcasting Services Act. The new regulations were gazetted on 7 August 2009 in Statutory Instrument (S.I.)130 of 2004, cited as Broadcasting Services (Licensing and Content) (Amendment) Regulations 2009. These new regulations effectively repeal S.I. I85 of 2004 which was previously in force.

Under the new regulations, an application fee for Free-to-Air National Radio Broadcasting Services shall cost US$2 500, which will be non refundable, while the basic licence fee for 10 years has been pegged at US$ 18 000. There will also be a levy of 1% of the annual gross turnover for the licence period, plus US$40 per frequency monthly coupled with a 0.5%contribution of the audited annual gross turnover payable to the Broadcasting Fund.

In respect of the Free-to- Air National Television Broadcasting Service, the application fee has also been set at US$2 500. The basic licence fee shall be US$20 000 with a charge of 1% annual gross turnover per annum for the licence period of 10 years. However, the payment plan is a flexible one which spreads evenly, the balance over the ten year licence period.

The application fee for Community Broadcasting shall be a non refundable US$500, while the basic licence fee for 10 years is pegged at US$1 500. The monthly frequency fee shall be US$60 per month.

Other categories of broadcasters and licences whose fees have been gazetted include; Subscription Satellite Broadcasting, Commercial Satellite Uplink, Temporary Satellite Uplink, Subscription Cable Broadcasting, Subscription Narrowcasting Service, Open Narrowcasting Service, Open Narrowcasting, Data casting, Diffusion, Roadcasting, Railcasting, Webcasting, Signal Carrier Licensing and Electronic Billboard Advertising.

Therefore, the new licence fees for basic broadcasting services are now as follows;

License category and fees charged per 10 years Zimbabwe
Free-to-air national radio broadcasting US 18 000
Free-to-air national TV broadcasting US 20 000
Community radio stations US 1 500

Reagan Malumo
Programme Officer: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht St
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek
Namibia
Phone: +264 61 232 975
Fax: +264 61 248 016
Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

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