Both MultiChoice's DStv as well as On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV have been slow to react - if at all - to update and provide a responsive electronic programme guide (EPG) to their South African subscribers in the wake of Friday's earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.
With the Japan disaster unfolding since Friday morning, neither DStv nor TopTV has made any effort to update the various TV channels on their respective bouquets - especially news channels - with the latest relevant programming. As with previous disasters and news events with a longer narrative that usually, predictively, plays out over multiple days like natural disasters, neither of the South African pay TV operators have any plan in place on how to quickly update their EPG's despite an abundance of programming information that - as again now - become available, or to simply watch their own channels.
Where CNN International (DStv 401) for instance yesterday already decided to ditch normal programming for the day as well as for today and tomorrow theming its coverage around ''Japan Quake Tsunami Disaster'', the DStv EPG for this channel as well as other news channels are completely not usable to set functional PVR recordings or reliable as a programming guide. Yet, since CNN Worldwide has combined its CNN International and CNN US broadcasts and resources, simple research will yield a lot of information with which DStv would be able to adapt and instantly improve the accuracy of its EPG and the shows that will actually be on instead of the pre-recorded magazine shows listed in the EPG. The same goes for Sky News (402). DStv has actually stopped providing any specific EPG information for Russia Today (DStv405)
TopTV is also completely non-responsive regarding quick changes sometimes needed to its EPG. While MSNBC (TopTV 410) ditched its weekend programming consisting of a DocuMystery marathon today and a Lockup Raw marathon tomorrow, MSNBC went live theming its coverage with ''Disaster in Japan'' and various shows within that yesterday as well as right through this weekend. The same goes for Fox News (TopTV 405), France 24 (TopTV 402).
International pay TV operators elsewhere in countries like America understand that more accurate EPG information, timeously updated and a dedicted team of EPG specialists to just focus on this, has a marked effect on subscribers. Not only does more accurate EPG information often garner more viewers who are alerted to accurate programming they didn't know about and might suddenly find themselves interested in, but they can often be kept tuned-in for longer, and potentially record more shows to watch keeping them in front of the television screen for longer.
