The National Consumer Commission sees bouquets of TV channels offered as a product as the ''bundling'' of services. The National Consumer Commission issued a compliance notice to South Africa's pay TV operators last month restructure their channel line-ups and to price TV channels separately.
Conceivably, were such a change to be imposed on pay TV operators in South Africa, it would affect South Africa's broadcasters all negatively - from the SABC and e.tv to M-Net and even community television stations who's TV channels are included on both MultiChoice's DStv, as well as On Digital Media's TopTV pay services.
A bigger group of subscribers would choose more popular overseas TV channels, which could potentially cause the demise of anything from e.tv's eNews Channel to M-Net's Channel O and a string of niche channels with a small, yet loyal following.
Since less subscribers would outright select smaller channels catering to a niche audience, pay operators would drop these more expensive channels as part of the potential offer since every channel takes up satellite bandwidth and has a cost implication to maintain. South African broadcasters' overall revenue outlook will also have to be lowered since less advertising real estate is available with less TV channels on which to sell 30 second spots.
Subscribers only choosing the channels they deem worthy from month to month could also have a negative impact on the production of local TV content overall in South Africa. With less locally broadcast and compiled TV channels, the demand and need for some local TV content will plummet even further, which will dent the already-struggling South African TV industry. The cycle will lead to less content and even less choice for the consumer and viewer.
ALSO READ: What the real impact on you as a consumer and as a pay TV subscriber is going to be if pay TV operators have to ''unbundle'' their bouquets and sell TV channels separately - and how you can complain about it.
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The National Association of Broadcasters said that it's an ''industry body that focuses primarily on policy and regulatory matters affecting the broadcasting industry as a whole.'' It says that it has not canvassed members' views ''on the issue you've raised. We are therefore not in a position to offer any comments and views in relation to your query.''
