Can the SABC learn from the BBC model?

The BBC is arguably the world’s biggest broadcaster in terms of the number of people who watch and listen to its programming. The BBC, as a public broadcaster, is funded by license fees paid by UK citizens. However what is more interesting is that the BBC has a very successful commercial arm, the BBC Worldwide. BBC Worldwide produces and sells content in the form of DVD’s, Books and operates such interesting channels as BBC Knowledge and BBC Entertainment. According to the BBC Worldwide’s annual financial report for the 2008/9 period, the company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, reported a profit of £103 (R1.3Bil) before exceptional items, from revenues of just over £1Bil. It would appear that over the years, those who have been involved in running the BBC realised that license fees alone would never sustain the business of public broadcasting, hence the establishment of BBC Worldwide. While the SABC runs some of it’s radio station and TV channels as commercial entities, these commercial assets have so far not been able to derive enough profits to make the SABC as a whole a profitable business. One would hope that the new Board when it is finally announced would take some lessons from the BBC model and somehow adopt it to our unique South African circumstances to help make the public broadcaster protiable.