Drama and controversy just erupted with the SABC accusing Platco Digital and OpenView HD, the new direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV upstart, of misleading the public and of telling blatant lies, and with the SABC now saying the SABC's TV channels will not be available on OpenView HD and demanding that OpenView HD immediately withdraw the false and misleading statements.
Platco Digital's managing director, Maxwell Nonge, a division within the holding company Sabido Investments, told the South African press that OpenView HD will launch on 15 October with 16 TV channels including the SABC's SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3.
TV channels have to sign carriage agreements and have to pay to be available on OpenView HD for which people will have to pay R1 600 for a satellite dish and a decoder after which they will get the TV signals for free. Platco Digital says OpenView HD makes its money from the TV channels, who in turn generate their money from advertising revenue.
In a strongly worded statement the SABC says OpenView HD is lying with false claims that OpenView HD will be carrying SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 on the bouquet of channels and that the announcement "that SABC television channels will form part of their bouquet is not true".
The SABC says the public broadcaster "does not have any agreement with the newly launched satellite television service" and sees the false claims "in a serious light, as OpenView HD is misleading the public".
The SABC says its reached its own agreement for the SABC's channels to be carried on Sentech's new DTH satellite platform Freeview from the end of September 2013, saying OpenView HD needs to immediately stop "confusing the public with false advertising of their services".
"We will not allow anyone to use the SABC's name falsely to advance their business interests," says Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the SABC's acting chief operating officer (COO).
Platco Digital and OpenView HD didn't immediately respond to media enquiries seeking comment as to why it annouced the SABC channels as part of the bouquet, and whether Platco Digital has valid carriage agreements for the SABC channels on OpenView HD.
UPDATED 19 September 17:00 - Platco Digital is now responding, but not with answers to specific questions in a media enquiry, but with a very coy and mysterious and terse statement, saying defiantly that it will go ahead and include the SABC's 3 TV channels at launch in October, refusing to say whether it has a signed carriage agreement and saying the SABC has obligations and would act unlawfully as a public broadcaster by witholding its channels.
