You're reading it here first.
What really is going on at TopTV nobody knows, and it seems as if it's going to get even worse (if that's possible).
On Thursday evening Elouise Kelly said that it's with ''sadness'' that her ''tenure at TopTV/ODM has come to an end.'' She's now no longer with TopTV.
Meanwhile speculation abounds about TopTV's prospects. While TV with Thinus has literally begged for months to the point of harrassement for access to any TopTV executives to talk about On Digital Media (ODM)'s business, growth, challenges, performance and plans, TopTV seems to have lost all credibility within the local TV industry where pro-active interest from the press have almost completely evaporated.
Umpteenth unkept promises of new channels and other developments at TopTV kept being postponed and given new dates only for it to be pushed later again, seriously denting the credibility of not just TopTV, but also those reporting on any of these so-called developments that never seemed to materialize.
Now Elouise Kelly has left. She joined TopTV just before the pay TV operator started with its commercial roll-out in the position as chief marketing officer. There's no word from TopTV on who will be replacing her. There's been no prior notification from TopTV as usually comes from companies; no word on a hand-over and an alert on new contact details and who is taking over.
Unrelated, but in keeping with the apparent problem TopTV seems to have to communicate constantly and in a manner befitting a pay TV service, requests to TopTV for interviews the past months constantly kept being pushed back, only to, when the time/month arrived, get postponed yet again.
TopTV's weakening channel offering also got a massive dent when TV with Thinus broke the news that two channels, TLC and ID: Investigation Discovery will also be added to MultiChoice's DStv from tomorrow. Multiple insiders and TopTV employees were not aware of this and had to read about the news when it broke. TopTV, when asked, had zero response to me or to TopTV subscribers.
TopTV seems to have made no concerted effort to be in the news and remain in the news in an ever expanding buzz-filled South African TV sphere where talk about community TV stations, new TV channels, new TV technology and operators are setting the agenda for the news cycle and have completely overshadowed TopTV that's seemingly content to just keep pressing the mute button.
The number of press conferences with executives like CEO Vino Govender held since TopTV launched a year and 4 months ago in May 2010? One. The one at launch.
Where the cocktail talk about TopTV started to turn negative at TV parties for new channels and show launches within months towards the end of 2010, when TopTV is now mentioned it is with raised eyebrows and blatant sniggering by industry insiders who are all wondering and speculating about the same thing: What on earth is going on with TopTV and why is it that the company is not featuring more prominently and more consistently in the press?
The lack of TopTV talk of course has an impact of consumer and TopTV subscriber (and potential subscriber) confidence - as well as for the broader TV industry that has a decidedly more negative outlook on TopTV now than when ODM launched the service commercially in May 2010.
With the company mute about its prospects, plans, expansion, its promised and promised-again channel additions, and being cajoled for its lack of sport content, TopTV has lost and diluted basically all of the free goodwill it had at launch.
Now, with Elouise Kelly gone from TopTV, the few journalists who still care are once again going to wonder: What is actually going on at TopTV? The only difference is that they won't really have any expectations of any actual answers. They've become accustomed to the sound of silence.
