Financially distressed pay-TV operator TopTV, owned by On Digital Media and which is under “business rescue” in terms of the Companies Act, is discontinuing two of its channels this week. “As TopTV continues to operate under the business rescue plan … it has become necessary
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has given the go-ahead to Sentech, the state-owned company responsible for building the country’s digital television broadcasting network, to run a pilot this year of a new technology “profile”, called DVB-T2-Lite, for delivering TV broadcasts
Pay-television operator MultiChoice’s new bouquet of channels, the DStv “Family pack”, effectively replaces the two poorly performing DStv Select bouquets it introduced in partnership with Vodacom six years ago. Although the broadcaster will continue to offer the Select bouquets
Pay-television operator MultiChoice has launched a new DStv channel bouquet called the “Family” pack, which will be launched on 9 April at R175/month. DStv Family will consist of more than 45 channels, 17 of which have not been on
Broadcasting the latest television shows in South Africa soon after they have been aired in their home markets, and tying this to an affordable and convenient viewing experience, will go a long way in countering the growing threat posed by online piracy. That’s the view of John
The SABC has been left red-faced over the loss of its planned 24-hour news channel on DStv after the well-connected Gupta family seized the gap. Few at the SABC appear to have been aware that the Gupta channel was even in the offing, although the broadcaster must have been in regular contact
The influence of the powerful and politically well-connected Gupta family is set to grow this year with the addition to its media portfolio of a 24-hour news channel on the continent-wide DStv satellite platform, and a new prime-time slot on SABC. The owners of
Lack of certainty around the encryption and access control mechanisms to be used for digital terrestrial television, along with how millions of set-top boxes will be subsidised for poorer households, looks set to throw South Africa even further off track
With fewer than 1m broadband digital subscriber lines in service in South Africa, and longstanding exclusive rights to content held by local media companies, there is little demand for – and huge complexity involved in – bringing video content to the
The introduction by South African mobile operators of next-generation long-term evolution (LTE) networks does not amount to much. But we can’t ignore it because these networks are the first bit of evidence of a future of lost opportunities to deliver cheap, properly fast and ubiquitous broadband
