[By Candice Jones]

South Africans generally have a raw deal when it comes to gaining access to the latest music, movies and television shows.

Sometimes we have to wait months before the latest programming content reaches our shores. This can be exceptionally frustrating, especially when we have to endure teasers and spoilers on YouTube and elsewhere before getting a chance to sit down with a popcorn and Coke at the local theatre.

There is hope for entertainment junkies, though — especially after the revolutionary year for bandwidth pricing in SA.

With the introduction of relatively affordable uncapped broadband and rumours of triple-play services in the works, 2011 looks set to be the year of online content.

For years, local content dissemination has been in the ambit mainly of the mobile operators and wireless application service providers. Vodafone Live and MTN Loaded have brought ringtones and mobile games to customers.

Recently, MultiChoice and Vodacom launched mobile streaming TV, which allows subscribers to watch some of the latest shows and sports content over their phones’ data connections. The service has yet to prove its worth, though it is a sign of things to come.

Fixed-line service providers have largely stayed out of the content game.

Last week, I had a fascinating discussion with Afrihost director Greg Payne. He told me that for many consumers the Internet would no longer be about how many gigabytes they can download in a month, but rather what movies they will be able to stream and what series they will be able to download.

In short, Internet access will become like plumbing — you know it’s there, you know that it works, but you don’t really care to know more.

When consumers no longer worry about bandwidth caps and access speeds, that is when the content space in SA will start hotting up. And, according to Payne, it’s not that far away.

Already, local media and telecoms bigwigs are starting to look at how to bring triple-play services to the local market. Triple play involves the provision of broadband, video and audio content, and telephony over a single physical line.

In June, Telkom announced it was negotiating a possible partnership with a company that would help it bring triple-play services to particular areas — most likely gated communities where Telkom has fibre installed.

More recently, MWeb and MultiChoice sent a survey to selected customers asking whether there’s a market for such a triple-play product.

For MultiChoice it makes sense, primarily because of the introduction of uncapped broadband and the threat that Netflix and other international video providers could pose if they entered the SA market.

If Netflix comes to town, consumers may no longer have to wait up to four months to watch the latest series.

That could put a spanner in the works for local broadcasters. Customers won’t have to wait for Wednesday night to catch the latest episode of Heroes but will be able to download it and watch it whenever they want.

It’s only a matter of time before one of SA’s telecoms providers makes a serious play in the content space. With traditional voice and data margins under growing pressure, they’ll be keen to find new avenues for profitable growth.

With any luck, this time next year I will be able to rent the latest House online rather than having to wait months for it to be broadcast or to become available on DVD.