Openview's new black-and-white TV commercial with Siya Kolisi and Wayde van Niekerk features a people's movement building a free TV mountain.

eMedia's free-to-air satellite TV service, Openview, has made a black-and-white TV commercial with Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and Olympian athlete Wayde van Niekerk to underscore the growing movement of free-to-air digital television in South Africa.

The "TV Free and Proud" advert that was filmed in Johannesburg and conceptualised and produced by Sugar Ray Leonard & Partners and directed by Tebogo Malope, director at The Star Film Company, has people in various setting staring at TV screens with pay-TV channels until they unplug it and start moving, en masse, with the TV sets outside.

It leads to a movements of people stacking their TV sets in a heap on the Nelson Mandela Bridge in downtown Johannesburg.

More than 150 extras, including e.tv staff, took part in the commercial.

"The team at eMedia really put us through our paces in terms of carving out the positioning for Openview," says Marlin van Noie, Sugary Ray Leonard's chief creative officer.

"We finally got to the 'freedom of entertainment', and it felt right for Openview to be the liberator of free - the brand for the people."

Director Tebogo Malope says "the team at eMedia are creative, and they are also plugged into the streets. They are about the people, and they are about creative work like this. I realised I am in a space with kindred spirits who understand how to make work that resonates with our people."

Openview has just passed 1.5 million activated set-top boxes (STBs) this month and currently carries 20 TV channels and 8 radio stations.

"For the first time in the South African landscape there is world-class television in high-definition (HD) for free," says Khalik Sheriff, the new eMedia Investments' CEO.

"Don't tell anybody I didn't warn you. Even if you don't believe me today, in a few years from now, we will all be watching Openview."