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As e.tv had prepared the past months to switch South Africa's only commercial free-to-air TV channe to a high definition (HD) TV channel, it is now changing its broadcast format from standard definition (SD) to HD and will commission, and see delivered and produced, all of its local South African TV content in the HD format.
In addition from now on e.tv will also only acquire rights to TV content available in HD, or where it's not possible upscale the content to close to HD quality.
It's not yet clear when, or whether, MultiChoice will be upgrading e.tv's channel status to the e.tv HD channel in the way it did with M-Net which switched to M-Net HD.
e.tv HD will however roll out and be seen in HD first on Platco Digital's OpenView HD (OVHD) direct-to-home (DTH) satellite platform from 15 October when OVHD goes on sale in South Africa.
e.tv, from Sabido Investments, which is turning 15 years old, says the switch from SD to HD is necessitated by remaining and keeping up with the international TV standard and that e.tv needs to remain on par with international television broadcasting benchmarks.
"Ons has to simply look at the growth in sales of HD television sets in the country to see the need to deliver quality and entertaining television to the broader South African market [in HD]," Monde Twala, e.tv's group head of channels tells TV with Thinus.
"e.tv is extremely excited to be able to offer our viewers the best available quality content. The channel has changed its broadcast format from SD to HD. From October all our locally commissioned content will be delivered and produced in the HD format. This includes all international content such as movies, kids' animation and series," says Monde Twala.
He says "HD content will be phased in over a period, across all our themed channels."
"Content that is not filmed in HD will be upgraded to HD as it is a standard for HD broadcasters worldwide," says Monde Twala. "We are working closely with the production sector and international suppliers to ensure that we deliver a better and improved quality picture for our market."
"This also means that the TV consumers in South Africa will be the ultimate winners."
e.tv as a broadcaster now joins MultiChoice as a pay-TV provider in providing an HD offering to South African viewers. The SABC and On Digital Media (ODM) running the struggling TopTV satellite pay-TV service only have SD channels and are lagging behind in rolling out channels in high definition.
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