According to a briefing document, the main purpose of the mediator will be to reach a settlement agreement between the two state-owned companies, including stipulations as to how future tariffs will be set.
"There has been an ongoing tariffs dispute between the SABC and Sentech, which started in the 2020/2021 financial year and resulted in the SABC lodging a complaint with the Competition Commission," said the document.
"The SABC was dissatisfied with the outcome of the commission's investigation and filed the matter with the Competition Tribunal for consideration. The parties are currently working at resolving the issues among themselves, outside of the tribunal process, wherein the services of a mediator are required."
Despite the commission's findings that there was no evidence to support the SABC's contention that Sentech's fees - or any of the increases in the fees between 2018 and 2021 - were excessive, the SABC has maintained its stance that the company imposes "monopoly pricing".
Industry experts have expressed similar concerns, noting that Sentech's fees where it does not enjoy a monopoly - in satellite, for example - are much lower compared to what it charges for terrestrial signal distribution.