As South Africa inches slowly towards migrating from analogue to digital terrestrial television, communications regulator Icasa has provisionally granted licences to five new pay-TV operators following an exhaustive hearings process that took place in 2013. The companies and consortia that have bid for the licences
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A new South African video-on-demand player, Discover Digital, plans to give broadcasters a run for their money by launching both subscription-based and transactional video-on-demand services, as well as content kiosks, aimed at a broad spectrum of consumers. The company says it has developed the infrastructure required to launch its service
MultiChoice has criticised communications regulator Icasa over its decision to ask the Competition Commission to probe a “possible restrictive horizontal practice” between it and the SABC over the supply by the public broadcaster of a 24-hour news channel
Communications regulator Icasa has asked the Competition Commission to probe what it’s calling a “possible restrictive horizontal practice” between the SABC and MultiChoice over the supply by the public broadcaster to the pay-television operator of a 24-hour news channel. TechCentral revealed last year that the agreement contains an obligation
The small black box at the heart of the move from analogue to digital is about South Africans’ freedom, which communications minister Yunus Carrim’s decision will either narrow or enlarge. This is unfortunate since technology and markets function
The humble video store isn’t dead, provided it adapts to the times by taking advantage of modern technology, says Barry Hilton. The South African comedian has an idea he thinks can save the DVD rental industry. And he’s not joking. Hilton, known for his comedic sketches that poke fun at South African society, says video stores have
The war of words that erupted between MultiChoice and communications minister Yunus Carrim this week is extraordinary. It is also, unfortunately, very damaging. It is unusual in South Africa – or most countries, for that matter – for a large company to take on a cabinet minister directly, aggressively and in public like this. One has to
MultiChoice “cannot speak for the poor” and “has no mandate from them”. It also can’t speak for consumers, from whom it makes “super profits”. That’s the latest broadside directed against MultiChoice by the ministry of communications as the war of words between the Naspers-owned pay-television operator and communications minister
The ongoing spat between government and MultiChoice about the pay-television operator monopolising content rather reminds me of a domineering parent chastising his child for not sharing his toys without realising that the poor kid is being bullied to death at school. It is absurd that government should even consider
MultiChoice has upped the ante further with communications minister Yunus Carrim over government’s policy on the use of encryption in digital terrestrial television. In a statement, it has accused the minister of not telling the truth when he claimed that MultiChoice and its partners were misrepresenting the situation. Tensions between