Super 5 Media, the troubled wannabe pay-TV operator formerly known as Telkom Media, has not been granted an extension to a deadline to launch commercial services by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) and the matter will now be heard at a public hearing.
Super 5 Media was licensed, along with four other prospective operators, to compete with incumbent pay-TV operator MultiChoice and its DStv service almost five years ago. Of the companies licensed, only On Digital Media launched a product, TopTV.
Last year, Super 5 Media retrenched all its staff amid talk that it would be forced to file for liquidation. However, the company retains a small office in Centurion and is led by Xin Zhang.
Zhang could not be reached for comment on his mobile phone on Monday morning.
The company has repeatedly missed deadlines set down by Icasa to launch commercial services. Under the latest extension, it was meant to launch services by the end of last month. Now the authority appears to have had enough and its council has declined to grant another automatic extension.
Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka says Super 5 Media’s request for a further extension has not been granted, but neither has it been refused.
Instead, Maleka says the Icasa council has decided to “subject the request to a public process”. A public hearing will be called to consider submissions from interested parties. A date for that hearing has not yet been set, he says. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral
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