While the pay TV service Zuku TV in Kenia, Uganda and Tanzania just replaced the defunct Hi Nolly TV channel with a new Nollywood channel, the pay TV provider TopTV in South Africa (who lost the Hi Nolly channel at the same time during November last year) has given subscribers no future indication about when - or what - it will be replaced with.
With the self-destruction of HiTV in Nigeria under a massive debt burden in November and with the shocking termination of its self-compiled channels such as Hi Nolly which it provided to other pay TV services such as On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV, pay TV providers across the African continent were suddenly left with unexpected gaps on the channel line-ups after the implosion.
Immediately South Africa's TopTV apologized and promised a replacement channel.
Last month, In January, I again asked TopTV what about the promises regarding replacement channels and how far plans are. There was still no definite answer.
Now its February and again another month later. South African TopTV subscribers are still paying the same price but receiving less channels than when and what they've signed up for (One Music from HiTV disappeared as well; Current TV beamed from Britain and also seen on TopTV is set to close down on 11 March).
Now Zuku TV, run by the Wananchi Group in East Africa has replaced Hi Nolly with the African Movie Channel (AMC). TopTV asked again late on Monday regarding possible replacement plans for Hi Nolly didn't have a definite answer. The African Movie Channel started in May last year and shows Nollywood, general African and East African flavoured movies.
Hannelie Bekker, the managing director of Wananchi programming, says ''The unfortunate demise of Hi Nolly created a gap in our line-up that our consumers were quick to respond to.''
Some context: Hannelie Bekker is a brilliant South African television executive and was the former programming manager for SABC3 before a stint at Telkom Media (where that company that wanted to start a pay TV service in South Africa never got off the ground). She cleverly and quickly found a dependable and quality replacement for Hi Nolly, while TopTV is still lagging, despite promises.
Also: Being able to quickly replace a TV channel with a like-for-like value offering within a pay TV operation speaks to the skill, knowledge, speed, professional contacts and acting on urgency from primarily programming executives. I don't have the answer, but think what it means on a broader level and what it says of a company, if it takes longer than 90 days to replace a lower-tiered service or channel.
What will happen when a top-tiered channel flames out? What does it say about general programming priorities, impetus for local programming and the drive (or lack thereof) to build an overall enticing channels offering and bouquet proposition to subscribers?
