Communications Minister Roy Padayachie has withdrawn the draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill pending further consultation, and wants to consider new models for funding the SABC and community media, it was reported on Monday.

Padayachie's decision follows complaints from concerned groups at public hearings held in Midrand last week, Techcentral reported on its website.

The draft bill had called for, among other things, scrapping TV licences and for an amendment to the Income Tax Act that could have resulted in up to one percent of personal income tax being set aside for public broadcasting.

"I am convinced much more can yet be gained by engaging in further work before a bill is presented to Cabinet," Padayachie reportedly said.

"I have thus decided to withdraw the current draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill."

In redrafting the bill, the department should consider the "developmental and democratic goals of the republic".

For these to be best served, "it is imperative that our broadcasting policy is at the cutting edge of our digital age".

Also, broadcasting policy required "wholehearted and energetic mobilisation of state, industry and societal role players", he said.

Specifically, Padayachie wanted a review of legislation and regulations to ensure "policy and legislative alignment and consistency".

And he wanted a review of "research done of funding options for the SABC and community radio" and an "economic modelling exercise" to "begin to look at SABC and community media costs and projected costs of digital migration in the sector", Techcentral reported.