The department has submitted a draft bill to do away with TV licences and dramatically change how public broadcasting is funded in South Africa.
Earlier this year, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda announced that the SABC had raked in close to R1-billion in television licence fees last year.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question, he revealed that the national broadcaster had attracted 644 253 new licensed viewers during the 2008/09 financial year.
"Television licence collections for the 2008/09 financial year (April 1 2008 to March 31 2009) amounted to R972m."
In terms of the Broadcasting Act, television licence revenue had to be used solely to fund the SABC's public service broadcasting (PSB) mandate.
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"With regard to television broadcasting, income derived from licence fees is allocated to the SABC's two PSB channels, namely SABC1 and SABC2.
"Television licence revenue also assists in funding the corporation's 15 PSB radio stations," Nyanda said.
If the cash-strapped public broadcaster is annoyed or surprised by the department's initiative, it's not saying.
In fact, spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the SABC's management had taken note of the newly published Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) Bill, and its proposals on the abolition of television licences.
"The bill is currently a discussion document which still has to go through a public consultation process and various legislative processes before it becomes law."
Kganyago added that the payment of TV licence fees remained in force.
This week Nyanda said the PSB Bill was intended to replace the Broadcasting Act of 1999.
His department is amending and renaming the act to bring it in line with international standards.
He said a strategy would be formulated to secure the SABC's revenue stream from other sources.
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