This chapter critically examines the changing nature of the statutory and regulatory regime that has governed public television broadcasting from 1976 to the present. It explores the structures of the apartheid era—reflecting on how television was used to bolster the state and its ideology. It considers the SABC in transition from a state to a public broadcaster, the impact this had on television and the public information role it was required to play around the time of the transition to democracy. It discusses the changes introduced in the 1999 Broadcasting Act and the 2005 Electronic Communications Act and how these impacted the operations of SABC television over time, particularly by imposing licence conditions and regulations consistent with its public mandate. It also references numerous court cases, which have stipulated, for example, basic requirements for an independent public broadcaster in light of the myriad financial and governance crises experienced by the SABC since 2007. Finally, the chapter turns to the future, considering proposed policy changes in the draft White Paper on Audio and Audio-visual Media and the SABC Bill, 2003, and the challenges of the analogue switch-off.