eMedia Holdings, parent company of e.tv and Openview, has said it intends to pursue litigation against MultiChoice over the latter’s attempt to remove four eMedia channels from DStv.

The four channels in question – eExtra, eMovies Extra, eMovies and eToonz – are ranked first, fourth, seventh and 10th, respectively, as of 31 March 2024 in a satellite television channel ranking analysis done using Arianna Dayparts software.

DStv first removed these channels in May 2022, to which eMedia responded by obtaining an interdict from the competition appeal court, which ordered the channels to be reinstated pending an investigation by the Competition Commission.

“Unfortunately, the Competition Commission’s investigation concluded that eMedia suffered no harm and that DStv’s actions were not anticompetitive. As a result, there is a looming threat of the channels being removed once again. eMedia is challenging these findings through all available legal avenues,” said eMedia CEO Khalik Sherrif in the company’s annual report, published this week.

According to Sherrif, the matter of DStv’s alleged market dominance seems be overlooked when “it commands approximately nine million out of about 12 million satellite homes”. He said this “absolute dominance” has a significant impact on eMedia’s revenue, since the loss of advertising from the audience viewing its channels on DStv will severely affect eMedia’s ability to compete and acquire quality content.

Battles raging

The litigious nature of the relationship between eMedia and MultiChoice extends beyond the channels battle. Earlier this month, TechCentral reported that eMedia took MultiChoice and the SABC to the competition appeal court alleging that the public broadcaster and SuperSport – another MultiChoice subsidiary – had concluded a sports sublicensing deal that contravened an April interim relief order granted by the Competition Tribunal. That order flowed from litigation over Rugby World Cup sublicensing rights which eMedia pursued in the high court as well as with the tribunal last year.

The order barred the SABC and SuperSport from entering into sublicensing agreements for sports matches that forced the SABC not to extend the broadcast to its channels on the Openview platform. The matter, however, did not make it to open court as the SABC withdrew from the agreement with SuperSport.

Subsequently, communications minister Solly Malatsi and his counterpart in the sports, arts & culture ministry, Gayton McKenzie, met with the broadcasters in an attempt to find a solution to the impasse.

There is no love lost between eMedia and DStv. Despite their markets being distinctly different, with DStv focused on the pay-TV segment and eMedia’s Openview catering to free-to-air viewers, changes to the broadcasting landscape – mostly from internet-based streaming services – may see the two companies competing for similar audiences in future.

In the meantime, eMedia said it faces the threat of losses in advertising revenue should DStv remove the four channels from its platform.

“While eMedia will continue to fight for the channels to remain on the DStv platform, urgent measures must be taken to mitigate the loss of advertising revenue. Alternative strategies will be explored to compensate for this revenue shortfall,” Sherrif said.