Prospective pay-television broadcaster Siyaya TV has received the green light from communications regulator Icasa to commence broadcasting.
Siyaya, which intends offering a low-cost bouquet using digital terrestrial television transmission, in August secured a R1bn broadcast deal for the rights to broadcast Bafana Bafana football games from May 2015.
The broadcaster was one of five parties granted provisional licences by Icasa in April. Siyaya TV has satisfied the requirements to be issued with an individual commercial subscription broadcasting service licence.
“Among the required requirements were financial guarantees, research and corporate structure,” Siyaya said in a statement. Apart from traditional linear broadcasting, the company intends introducing Internet TV and “over the top” (OTT) products to the lower ends of the market, it said. “OTT is one the strategies by Siyaya to enhance its service offering to those in lower living standards measures.”
Siyaya is one of a number of new licensees that hope to take advantage of communications regulator Icasa’s plans to open up the airwaves to more competition once the country switches over to digital transmission of television broadcasts.
The 100% black-owned Siyaya’s main shareholder is the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela tribe in North West. It has said previously it wants to offer local content, with a strong focus on football, for a monthly subscription fee starting at just R70/month.
Soccer will be a key component of Siyaya’s offering, along with an extensive library of video-on-demand content and facilities for storing 100 hours of content on a personal video recorder, it told Icasa. It intends targeting black South Africans with an average age of 30 and a monthly household income of between R4 000 and R10 000, a potential market of a million viewers, it said.
The broadcaster said it plans to provide more details about its launch plans in January. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media