TopTV into the terrible two's: The things TopTV will have to do in its 2nd year of operation to make up for lost momentum.

As TopTV enters its 2nd year of commercial operations as a pay TV operator it's not just the terrible two's that await but also an expectant and out-of-patience subscriber base demanding better service, technology and new TV channels. Now having entered its 2nd year, TopTV will have to make up for the lost momentum and goodwill it squandered since On Digital Media (ODM) launched TopTV a year ago.

TopTV chose not to respond to repeated requests by TV with Thinus since mid-April to talk to executives running South Africa's second pay TV operator for the purposes of this article and others to provide perspective on the pay TV company on its first anniversary. Based on anecdotal evidence however - and without direct input from TopTV executives - it's clear that TopTV has lost some of the momentum and through inaction dulled a lot of the precious and priceless excitement the South African TV industry, potential and current subscribers, consumers, ad buyers, local content producers and the press had. TopTV will have to step up its operations and roll-out in its 2nd year in several key, and seriously underperforming areas.

TopTV CEO Vino Govender, who's not talking, underestimated the appetite, discretionary spending power and consumer knowledge of even the lower living standard measurement (LSM) target market TopTV went for. TopTV's lack of high definition (HD) channels and lack of a digital personal video recorder (PVR) or PVR functionality in the current TopTV decoder is something Vino Govender knows but that TopTV haven't acted on yet, and not fast nearly fast enough. It would serve TopTV well to give a cue to the industry and to indicate (with exact dates) to consumers, subscribers and potential subscribers when a PVR or PVR functionality and/or HD channels will be rolled out by TopTV.

Speaking of channels... at the launch on 1 May 2010 last year Vino Govender made promises of a range of channels to be added within 6 months. That promise was broken. More promises of new channels were made. Broken. Besides denting credibility, the industry and subscribers are confused by the absence of further channel carriage deals by TopTV or a credible, communicated timetable. Now TopTV is looking at June and July to add new channels but inexplicably failed to use its first birthday as cache to announce anything. The biggest content drawback is a real sport channel. TopTV didn't respond to media enquiries made about this subject last week, ever since the last indication given by Vino Govender was that a sport channel will be added during the 2nd quarter of 2011, placing it between April and June. 

TopTV will need to improve current subscriber after sale support and responsiveness which is mired in a gridlocked system of bureaucratic unhelpfulness. By the time fatigued subscribers choose the press to plead for help and to vent their frustration and anger, you should know that you have a problem.

TopTV will need to learn to talk (more) - even if there is little or nothing (which is presumptuous. Find things!) to say. Silence does not build relationships - commercial or otherwise - which is what TopTV needs to do. It needs to be out there but is not. It doesn't cost money; it requires willingness. The ad buying community, the press and content production fraternity have largely turned their attention away from TopTV seemingly happy to trundle along in muted fashion. As a media company and as a media company making money out of media and communication, TopTV comes across as inexplicably out of touch (and not just because an ''out of office'' reply is activated on its helpline email over weekends).

TopTV fails to recognize that it's a media provider in a multi-media orchestral extravaganza. By not playing their instrument and by not talking - irrespective of the sound or volume of it - TopTV is not heard; overshadowed by tiny triangles and thin flutes who do care to play. In today's world filled with many voices, you need to at least make a noise to be heard. Just because you don't have ad supported channels now doesn't mean that you don't have to already talk and engage consistently and get to know media planners and ad agencies, ad buyers and content producers. The pay-off comes when you do get there and already have some kind of a relationship instead of a first, uneasy meet-and-greet. One press conference since launch - at launch - is unthinkable yet's been exactly the tortoise-in-the-shell TopTV approach during the first year.

As TopTV enters its 2nd year it will need to deliver on at least these and other quantifiable issues if it's going to survive and prosper - and not just does everyone want it to, South Africa's TV biz needs it to. TopTV needs to show - and still can - that the promise it made a year ago of ''a brighter world'' in television is not just an empty rainbow dream.