by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice will no longer remove eMedia's set of four e.tv TV channels from DStv at the end of this month with the channels that will remain available to DStv subscribers for about another two months because of a channel carriage fight between the two companies that has now spilt over to a case before the Competition Tribunal.
Channel carriage agreement fights playing out in public and acrimonious channel renewal negotiations have grown in recent years in the United States where channel operators and distributors demand more money per subscriber for successful channels during contract renewals, while pay-TV operators baulk at paying more as they try to keep costs down and yet must try to keep the offering of their overall content bouquet enticing so that subscribers don't cancel.
In contrast, channel acquisition fights have been much rarer in South Africa's pay-TV space, where international and local channel distributors and pay-TV operators have kept their cards much closer to the vest.
These channel carriage fights are likely to become and play out more publicly in South Africa in the future, similar to America, as the traditional pay-TV bundle model worldwide comes under ever-increasing pressure and pay-TV operators in Africa like MultiChoice and China's StarTimes, try to maintain a collection of TV channels in their bundled offerings while trying to keep channel carriage fees as low as possible.
MultiChoice has now quietly removed the channel termination notices on the eMovies (DStv 138), eMovies Extra (DStv 140), eExtra (DStv 195) and eToonz (DStv 311) TV channels that were all set to go dark on DStv at the end of March 2022 after the pay-TV operator decided to not sign a channel carriage extension contract for those channels with eMedia Investments.
MultiChoice did opt to keep - under a separate agreement - the TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv (DStv 194) also from eMedia, which includes the 7-day a week eNuus Afrikaans TV news bulletin packaged by eNCA and supplied to M-Net's kykNET (DStv 144) and kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) channels.
eMedia has now gone to the Competition Tribunal, seeking to force MultiChoice to keep carrying eMovies, eMovies eExtra, eExtra and eToonz with the case that might only be concluded in two months' time at the end of May.
On Tuesday eMedia was asked why the channel termination notifications of its channels on DStv disappeared, whether these four channels will now remain on DStv, and if this is because of a new carriage agreement, a temporary agreement and if temporary, what the period is.
eMedia in response to the media query only said that eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra "will remain on DStv until further notice. We cannot give any further information at this stage".
eMedia didn't mention that it has taken its channel carriage fight with MultiChoice to the Competition Tribunal.
MultiChoice was also asked for comment, with the company that said it opted to keep the four e.tv TV channels on DStv for the time being until the case before the Competition Tribunal has been concluded.
"MultiChoice announced on 2 March that the following eMedia channels -
eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz - will no
longer be available on DStv from 31 March 2022," Itumeleng Thulare, MultiChoice spokesperson told TVwithThinus.
"These channels are not part of
the new channel carriage agreement to continue to carry eNCA and eNuus
programming, concluded between MultiChoice and eMedia in February
2022."
"Despite negotiating and signing the new channel carriage agreement,
eMedia filed an application with the Competition Tribunal on 17 March 2022
seeking an order to compel MultiChoice to continue carrying the four channels."
"In light of this development, the four channels
will now remain on DStv until this matter is concluded, which we expect
to be no later than 31 May 2022."
Channels door remains open
Earlier this month, TVwithThinus asked Marlon Davids, managing director of e.tv channels, if the possibility remains for MultiChoice to ever return the to-be-axed channels like eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz to DStv, or for eMedia to make a carriage deal with StarSat, or whether the door on pay-TV carriage for these channels are permanently closed.
"It will be up to them. Our strategy is that our channels are free-to-air channels and should be available wherever people access channels. So that's their decision, there's no regulation that they need to carry the channels. Our view is that they should."
