Growing frustration and anger, together with chaos and confusion is reigning among TV viewers in several African countries surrounding South Africa, where people are now resorting to buying pirated DVD disks with episodes of South African television soaps, following the sudden end of the freely available SABC and e.tv TV signals in the rest of Southern Africa from the beginning of July.
Backyard technicians who at the beginning of July did brisk business by asking up to $40 for claims to illegally restore the SABC and e.tv on imported decoders from China and Dubai such as Philibao, Wiztech and Fortec Star have all suddenly disappeared.
Desperate viewers in countries ranging from Zimbabwe, Angola, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and even Madagascar who forked over money have found that the technicians who told them to pay up and wait for the signals to return are now nowhere to be found.
Frustrated TV viewers are left without their money and no available signals but those of moribund state-run TV stations which they say are not worth watching.
At the end of June the South African parastatal signal distributor Sentech finally turned off the free South African television programming bonanza when it encrypted the free-to-air TV signals from South Africa's broadcasters beyond the country's borders.
The unkind television cut and encryption is the result of eBotswana's court case in which the broadcaster successfully argued that it was losing viewers and revenue through the illegal availability and distribution of South African broadcasters' TV signals outside of South Africa.
eBotswana reportedly now has plans to try and secure some of the SABC's soaps such as Generations for the broadcaster which viewers in Botswana would be able to watch on eBotswana, instead of on SABC1 which shouldn't have been freely available as a TV channel in that country, and no longer is since the beginning of July.
While SABC bashing is a favourite passtime of South African television viewers who frequently and vocally criticise the public broadcaster for its shoddy and old programming, repeats and mismanagement while they're forced to pay for a TV license which will once again increase this year, viewers in other African nations look up to SABC programming which they say is far better than the poor production values and programming served up by local TV stations.
Millions of viewers - who for years have daily fed on a steady diet of South Africa's glam TV soaps ranging from Generations, Muvhango, Isidingo, Rhythm City and even the Afrikaans with subtitles soap 7de Laan - as well as wider choice of TV news and current affairs programming originating from South Africa, are going through severe television withdrawal symptoms.
As MultiChoice's DStv decoder sales are suddenly skyrocketing, shops which sold the now obsolete decoders have started closing down in droves.
Shop owners, left with thousands of dollars of worthless decoders, have been inundated with calls from TV viewers who want to know why their decoders are suddenly no longer working.
Viewers outside of South Africa are now also resorting to buying pirated DVD's with episodes of South African TV soaps. Street vendors are suddenly selling weekly "omnibus" DVD disks with illegally captured soap episodes. For just one dollar a buyer gets five Generations episodes on a disk, complete with a sleeve.
At the same time another debate has also flared up in countries such as Swaziland where shocked viewers are wondering why Swazi TV isn't for instance producing their own "soapies" but allowed viewers to get hooked on the glam weekly schadenfreude of Generations and Isidingo.
1st TV, a new private free-to-air TV station plans to start broadcasting from Friday in Zimbabwe on Wiztech decoders at the same time as Sentech and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) have started talks about how South African TV programming could possibly be shown on the ZBC in the form of a new "regional SABC channel" which could maybe offer viewers joint SABC and ZBC programming.
DStv decoders which cost $35 now sell for as much as $70 as desperate viewers cough up ever increasing prices to get access to better television and refuse to watch what public broadcasters in their countries offer up.
"A lot of people wanted the decoders after the switching off of SABC channels, so we then decided to increase the prices to get more cash. People are still coming," a shop owner told the Southern Eye newspaper in Zimbabwe. In just that country 3 million viewers watched the SABC and e.tv on free-to-air decoders until the signals were scrambled.
