Sentech is South Africa's state-owned provider of broadcasting signal distribution and communications infrastructure. Signal distributor Sentech exceeded most of its operational and financial targets during the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, achieving 89% of its predetermined objectives, although it continued to fall short of its new revenue growth ambitions.Headed by CEO Tebogo Leshope, Sentech is South Africa's state-owned provider of broadcasting signal distribution and communications infrastructure.Reporting to the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, the company plays a critical role in ensuring television and radio broadcasters can reach audiences across the country.In addition to distributing terrestrial TV and radio signals, Sentech offers broadband, wireless and satellite connectivity services to government, enterprises and telecommunications operators.The company manages an extensive network of transmission sites nationwide and supports government initiatives aimed at expanding digital connectivity and communications services to rural and underserved communities, while pursuing commercial growth and financial sustainability.Presenting the company’s third and fourth quarter business performance report to Parliament, Sentech said its overall performance improved significantly from the previous quarter, with achievement against corporate key performance indicators rising by 19 percentage points.The state-owned company reported that continuing business revenue outperformed expectations, finishing 9% above budget for the quarter, driven largely by the steady performance of its media business.For the full year ended 31 March 2026, total revenue reached R1.64 billion, 2% above budget.The company’s profitability also improved, with its cumulative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin reaching 23%, exceeding its annual target of 18%.However, Sentech continued to struggle to generate new sources of income.Its cumulative new revenue margin closed the year at 23%, well below the 36% target. Performance in this area also deteriorated from the third quarter, when the company had reported a cumulative new revenue margin of 26%.Despite the revenue growth shortfall, Sentech maintained high levels of network reliability.Weighted average network availability reached 99.89% at the end of the fourth quarter, exceeding the company's service level agreement target of 99.5%.The company also exceeded several strategic operational targets.Sentech connected 2 212 hotspots and facilities by year-end, surpassing its revised target of 2 200 sites. The original target of 5 800 connected sites had been lowered because of funding constraints affecting government's SA Connect broadband programme.Sentech CEO Tebogo Leshope. The company said funding limitations during the third quarter had slowed network deployment, but catch-up efforts enabled it to exceed the revised target by year-end.Progress was also reported on Sentech’s 5G-based Smart Village platform, one of the company's flagship innovation projects.The platform was successfully implemented during the year and connected 1 063 users, exceeding the target of between 800 and 1 000 users during the acquisition phase.Sentech also reported that its data maturity capability improved beyond expectations, reaching level four against a target of level two.The company exceeded customer experience targets, achieving an 81% customer satisfaction score against the 71% target, while its brand equity score reached 85%, above the targeted range of 76% to 80%.Sentech said 85% of customer satisfaction survey recommendations had been implemented, while execution of its brand and communication plan reached 123%.The organisation is still awaiting the outcome of its external audit, with a clean audit remaining one of its annual performance targets.On its satellite strategy, Sentech reported that its Infosat subsidiary has been established and is now operational and ready to implement the company’s satellite programme. The presentation noted that deployment is in progress and that the subsidiary's financial and management systems are in place.From a workforce perspective, Sentech ended the financial year with 621 employees, comprising 420 permanent and 201 temporary staff.Employee costs represented 32% of total expenditure, slightly above the company's 30% target, while labour turnover remained low at 1.67%, well below the 10% threshold.The company, however, continues to fall short of some employment equity targets. Women accounted for 41% of employees against the 50% target, while employees living with disabilities represented 1.2% of the workforce, below the 2% goal.In procurement, Sentech exceeded several transformation targets, including spending 87.9% of procurement on black-owned enterprises against a target of 75%, and 86.9% on qualifying small and medium enterprises, well above the 60% target.However, procurement from black female-owned businesses declined to 35.66%, missing the 40% target, while spending on enterprises owned by persons with disabilities fell sharply to just 0.03%, significantly below the 2% target.Summing up its performance, Sentech said it had delivered 89% of its corporate key performance indicators, exceeded its profitability target, maintained strong network availability and successfully expanded connectivity despite funding constraints affecting broadband rollout.However, the company acknowledged that growing new revenue streams remains a key area that requires improvement.