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Cash-strapped public broadcaster the SABC would have made a profit of around R1.5bn in the 2018/19 financial year if South Africans paid their licence fees at the same rate as BBC viewers.
The corporation on Tuesday presented its annual report to Parliament, which showed a loss of R482m. The broadcaster received a R2.1bn lifeline from on October to keep operating.
While most of its income comes from advertising (R4.58bn in the year to end March) licence fees could put it in the green if payment levels neared those of its British counterpart. The SABC, which has 18 radio stations, three TV channels and two channels on DStv, has been attempting to to up its collection rate to boost revenue.
Losses mean it cannot broadcast any of the games at the Rugby World Cup in Japan on television.
While around 93% of British licence holders pay their licences, according to UK government figures, an evasion rate of 7%, in South Africa only 31% of people do, meaning the country has an evasion rate of 69%.
The broadcaster, in its annual report, said that only 2.9 million TV licence holders "made an effort to pay their television licence fees in full or in part" against a known database of 9.4 million television licence holders.
In the past financial year, the SABC earned R968m in TV licence revenue, but a collection cost of R116m means that only about R852m flowed into the group's coffers.
If the SA broadcaster's evasion rate were also only 7% - similar to the BBC's - then 8.7 million licences would be paid yearly. At an annual cost of R265 per licence, total revenue would amount to about R2.3bn. Given that some pensioners in SA have concessions, this number would, however decrease slightly.
Provided yearly collection costs remained at 12% (increasing to R276m), the broadcaster would earn about R2bn in licence fees, turning its 482m loss into a profit of R1.5bn.
