TopTV that originally planned to start commissioning local South African programming for some of its own self-compiled Top-branded channels on the pay TV platform by the end of 2010, has decided to postpone the process of commissioning local TV productions indefinitely.
''Local programming is a difficult one,'' says Elouise Kelly, On Digital Media's (ODM) chief marketing officer when I asked hat is happening with TopTV's local content plans for the pay TV entrant that is now nine months into its commercial operations. ''We can't start making and commissioning local programming until we are actually a profitable business,'' she says. ''It takes a while for any business to become profitable and local TV content are expensive.''
''Now, we had hoped that during the first half of this year we would have been able to start putting out a few commissioning briefs for local content but that is not going to happen. When at TopTV we are ready to go into that area, we will make the necessary announcements.''
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