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
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 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
Netflix, Apple, Google and other online streaming video providers are the real threat to MultiChoice in South Africa’s subscription broadcasting industry, the pay-television operator’s CEO says. Imtiaz Patel, who heads up MultiChoice South Africa Group, tells TechCentral
Communications regulator Icasa this week kicked off a high-level formal inquiry into the state of competition in South Africa’s information and communications technology sector. In the coming months, the authority, which regulates the telecommunications, broadcasting and postal services sectors, has promised
Vodacom and New Media Publishing have launched an application for Android and iOS that provides rugby fans with detailed information about the 2014 Super Rugby season, which kicked off this month. The Vodacom Super Rugby Stats app, which is available for free, was developed under the
StarSat, the pay-television platform previously known as TopTV, will emerge as a “serious competitor” to MultiChoice, the Naspers subsidiary that owns the dominant DStv service. That’s the word from Peter van den Steen, who is overseeing the business rescue of StarSat parent On
SuperSport is ditching the 4:3 picture format across all its standard-definition (SD) broadcasts, moving to a widescreen format based on the 16:9 aspect ratio, parent MultiChoice said on Friday. The broadcaster already offers its HD channels in widescreen. “The switchover
MultiChoice has added new features to its DStv application for iPhones and iPads, allowing DStv Premium subscribers to download selected videos from its Catch Up service. Live streaming of major sporting events has also been incorporated into
Naspers is within a whisker of smashing through R1 000/share for the first time and reaching a market capitalisation of R400bn thanks to an 80%-plus surge in its share price in the past 12 months. The growth in its value in recent years has been nothing short of
