I can exclusively reveal that On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV pay television service that launched in May with big fanfare in South Africa is continuing to move forward with strong sales and new subscribers and has now surpassed the number of 200 000 TopTV decoders.
That means that there's 200 000 TopTV decoders installed since May as well as in shops. The company still refuses to give an actual TopTV subscriber number (which would be lower than 200 000 once store stock is subtracted), or a churn indication (subscribers who are signed up for a service but unsubscribe). Despite this, the 200 000 TopTV decoders are however a major indicator of the favourable response from South African consumers to the option of choice for the first time regarding pay television in South Africa, TopTV's very successful free installation marketing initiative and the immediate brand success that ODM has created with TopTV.
I can tell you that although TopTV doesn't want to release specific subscriber numbers now, the company does plan to do so in the future - hopefully the first quarter of next year. That's when specific viewership numbers for TopTV will start to appear when the pay platform's channels become part of the TAMS measuring system that track South African TV viewership. ''Subscriber numbers will not be released until we are represented on the TAMS base but we are looking at this happening during the first quarter of next year,'' Elouise Kelly, ODM chief marketing officer tells me.
''Currently our [churn] numbers are quite low,'' says Elouise Kelly when I asked about an indication of how TopTV is combatting subscribers who signed up but no longer want TopTV after a few months since they've had the chance to trial the new pay TV operator. ''It's less than 2%,'' she says. ''I think it would be naïve of us not to expect any churn. Right now we are dealing with subscribers on a one-on-one basis so we properly understand what the reasons are [why subscribers cancel] and how we can rectify these going forward. This also means we are able to retain certain subscribers depending on what their complaints are.''
''We find ourselves in a highly competitive environment. We really don't want to release any information until plans are finalized and contracts are in place,'' I'm told, when I asked about what else TopTV is busy with and subscribers can expect. In May TopTV promised the addition of more channels by October - six months after its launch date.
ALSO READ: TopTV to add the Afrikaans TV channel ASTV from 1 October as one of its new channels.
