Super 5 Media, formerly Telkom Media - that received a licence but made several false promises of starting a pay TV service in South Africa - is in a ''complete state of collapse'', ''basically now just an empty shell'' and ''breaking up like an iceberg over the past few months before our eyes''. So says disillusioned former, and disillusioned current (and sad!) employees of the Centurion based company that had dreams of becoming one of the new pay TV operators in the country. Meanwhile Super 5 Media refuse to respond – if it is that there's even still anybody left to pick up a phone.
Super 5 Media as I've told you RIGHT HERE exactly a month ago, is simply not responding in any way to media enquiries and is on the verge of losing its licence that was granted to it by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) way back in 2007. Super 5 Media which is 75% owned by Shenzhen Media must start a viable pay TV service by the end of September 2010 or lose its licence permanently – which as things stands now, will most likely happen. Millions of rands has been sunk into this once optimistic venture over the past four years with Super 5 Media now having virtually nothing to show for it. Telkom Media was once primed by industry experts as the frontrunner to be the first rival of those granted Icasa licences to start a viable pay TV business as competition for the then-incumbent MultiChoice. Not only did On Digital Media (ODM) start its TopTV service in May to claim this honour, but Super 5 Media is languishing in a debilitating and self-destructive void of inoperability while it has been sucking up countless millions over the past few years without discernably moving any closer to providing any tangible pay TV product launch(es) - despite hollow promises.
Repeated, ongoing attempts to get comment from Super 5 Media are still unsuccessful. Former workers who were fired, took voluntary severance packages the last few months in the umpteenth shedding of workers since Telkom Media became Super 5 Media. A few who are not sure if they still have work (since they were told not to come in to work anymore) tells me Super 5 Media is ''basically now just an empty shell'' and that it seems – according to one worker who left very recently – ''that Super 5 Media is in a complete state of collapse''. Another former worker said the company has basically ''let everyone go. There's very little left. There's very little actual people left. The last few months Super 5 Media has basically been one protracted implosion on every conceivable level.'' Yet another former Super 5 Media worker said, ''It's sad. It seems like the end. There's not enough left [at Super 5 Media] to really do anything with anymore, really. Basically everyone and everything is gone.''
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