You're reading it here first.
I can exclusively break the news that TopTV's porn package of 3 Playboy TV channels will cost R199 per month as a separate subscription for all 3 channels combined.
I've asked TopTV the channels' names but the pay TV operator has declined to reveal the channels for now, saying that the names of the channels will be revealed at launch.
TopTV told TV with Thinus yesterday that the pay operator was approached in the middle of this year by Playboy TV ''who had 3 adult video channels on offer'' and that TopTV recently concluded an agreement with Playboy TV and signed carriage agreements for these channels. TopTV is now waiting to hear from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) after TopTV applied for channel authorisation.
The three Playboy TV channels will be linear TV channels. Subscribers won't do video-on-demand (VOD) or pay-per-view, and the channels will be running 24 hours a day each. TopTV says the porn will be on the three channels that will ''carry a strictly enforced R18 age restriction and will only be accessible on a secure, encrypted and separate subscription package''.
''It will not be possible for the three additional channels to be viewed inadvertently by TopTV subscribers,'' says TopTV.
TopTV is still finalising how subscribers will be billed on their TopTV invoices for this subscription package and what exactly the entry for this R199 separate subscription will be saying. From anecdotal experience over years in the hospitality industry, customers making use of hotel VOD adult channels are used to having a more euphemistical item line appear on their invoicing. ''Details are being finalised and will be confirmed closer to the time,'' says TopTV.
