The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has decided to grant yet another and highly irregular extension to the severly struggling Super 5 Media to try and start a satellite pay TV service in South Africa.
While Icasa is not licensing new satellite pay TV entrants or giving them the opportunity to possibly enter the market, the authority - beset by its own administration and management issues - keeps granting extensions to the beleaguered Super 5 Media (owned by Shenzhen Media SA) to try and come up with a service. The new extension, after Super 5 Media ran out of time at the end of February after their third Icasa license extension, is giving Super 5 Media yet another unbelievable chance. Super 5 Media now gets time until August 2011 to start a service.
Super 5 Media (then called Telkom Media) was awarded a pay TV licence in September 2007 along with On Digital Media (ODM), Walking on Water (Wow) and e.Sat. While ODM started TopTV and e.Sat is focusing on supplying channels to other operators, Super 5 Media could in more than 3 years not come up with any viable commercial service. Super 5 Media's administration and daily operations completely imploded in Augustu last year when the company's office shuttered and staff got fired. Yet Super 5 Media got yet another (third) extension from Icasa to start a service by the end of February 2011.
Last month a Super5Media executive whom I spoke to in February about the possible new license extension called ''the process very sensitive. We don't want anything to be written about now, after all the damage of last year.''
Icasa only says it ''received a request for an extension [from Super 5 Media] to start its broadcasts. Council deliberated on the matter and agreed to grant the extension with certain conditions.'' Icasa, although a public authority and presiding over a public issue such as the issuing of pay TV licensees, isn't specifying what these conditions are for continuously agreeing to extend the faltering and ''living-dead'' Super 5 Media's requests to try and start some kind of a pay TV commercial service.
ALSO READ: Super 5 Media gets yet another surprising license extension from Icasa after it collapsed and now has until Feb 2011 to start a pay TV service.
ALSO READ: August 2010: Super 5 Media completely collapses: ''Everybody's running away from this thing.''
