by Thinus Ferreira
There's a loss of innocence and a sadness hardly ever spoken about, publicly acknowledged properly, or given due importance when it happens but chances are you've endured it several times already since you've been a toddler - and will likely some more as you age: The sudden end of a TV show and story you've been watching faithfully, or a go-to TV channel you've loved, suddenly ripped away.
It's horrible when it happens because the feelings and questions are always the same and remain for long afterwards; when people and stories you've watched and who feel like friends, are just gone: Why did they have to leave? What happened to a proper goodbye? Who decided this?
In June South African TV viewers lost again when another 5 broad, general entertainment TV channels disappeared from their DStv channel line-up: A+E Networks' Lifetime, as well as eMedia's channels like eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and the kids channel eToonz.
The Muslim religion channel ITV was also gone by mid-June from DStv.
It means no more Little Women and Ms Juicy, no more Postman Pat; no more of e.tv's dubbed Turkish telenovelas like the hugely popular Gebroke Harte.
As traditional linear satellite television services the world over struggle to keep the value proposition of their legacy bundling of TV channels going as it is constantly unravelling and getting diluted, it's more important than ever for traditional pay-TV operators and TV channel suppliers to work together to keep the TV pool as full as possible for as long as possible.
As more and more linear TV channels lose shows and content which are jumping to video-on-demand (VOD) streaming, as more and more linear TV channels simply shut down, and as more and more new prestige TV shows are made directly for streamers and no longer for studios' own linear TV channels, it is in everyone's interest to collective work together to protect what's left of the traditional direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV ecosystem.
Everyone once again became a loser a little bit more when e.tv's TV channels disappeared on 31 May from DStv: MultiChoice, eMedia, South Africa's TV industry and most importantly, the South African TV viewer.
It was and is in both eMedia and MultiChoice's best interest to work together and to keep linear TV channels that still exist, like eExtra, on something like DStv.
While it seems like South Africa and the world are still filled with hundreds of traditional linear TV channels, the truth is that the TV channels you've been watching are becoming an endangered species.
When and as traditional TV channels - whether packaged in South Africa, or acquired internationally like America - start to dry up one by one over time, like A+E Networks' Lifetime which became the latest one lost as the TV content licensing business is rapidly changing, the traditional satellite pay-TV bundle is edging closer and closer to collapse.
What happens the day when a TV viewer says: There are no longer enough linear TV channels, or not enough content on the carried linear TV channels, to make buying a traditional satellite TV bundle package worth it?
eMedia is losing out on a large number of viewers which will dent its income derived from advertising revenue. In turn, it means less money for eMedia to actually acquire programming for channels like eExtra or eMovies. It weakens, over time, the value of those channels and of a South African company trying to package and provide linear TV channels from South Africa to South Africans.
MultiChoice is losing out on average to above-average TV channels that strengthened the overall value of the DStv bundle - something that is maybe taken for granted now, but that shouldn't be under-estimated.
The ordinary South African TV viewer is also losing out, as once again, stories and shows they've watched, just end and are no longer available to watch where and how they've started watching it.
DStv subscribers who were introduced to the flurry of dubbed Turkish telenovelas that over the past few years became really popular on eExtra (so much so that M-Net is now also getting into the Afrikaans dubbing business of Turkish telenovelas for its kykNET & Kie channel), now have to switch to Openview if they want to continue watching a story they've already invested their time and attention in.
Once again people are having their viewing and favourite shows abruptly cut off and taken away because companies can't get along, can't sit down and negotiate and can't come to a mutually beneficial commercial agreement for the sake of those at the bottom of the TV biz pyramid: you - the paying TV consumer.
It's all so unnecessary.
Millions of ordinary pay-TV consumers in South Africa are not looking for the latest, made-to-win-an Emmy prestige miniseries from America.
They want access to general, mostly-decent, run-of-the-mill content for their kids, sports on Saturdays, and telenovelas and soap during dinner time on weeknights in prime time.
They want a bit of news. They want movies. And they watch Anaconda (again) even though they say they're tired of it - because it's scary, yet familiar and a Saturday or Sunday night ritual for the whole family like a TV-trip version of going to the amusement park.
Perhaps you've grown up in a city and have never thought twice about a certain shop from a specific retailer simply just being available where you live - in fact, maybe even many branches.
But think for a moment of the consumer living in a small town and ask them. They'll tell you that every single shop matters, greatly; that the mere existence, or arrival or opening of a small shop from a known retail brand "just like they have in the city" is often a cause for celebration because it's not taken for granted.
It's perhaps easy to dismiss an eToonz, or eMovies Extra or a Lifetime. After all, there are so many other kids channels, so many other movie channels, and a lifetime's worth of other TV channels to watch, right?
The almost unnoticeable danger is that the loss of every single TV channel moves the traditional linear satellite TV bundle closer and closer from a large TV city, to a small TV town - one where no one wants to go to.
The inexorable loss of linear is gradual. The Kardashians used to be on E! and now we're watching them on Disney+.
It's time for linear TV channel suppliers like eMedia, channel and content distributors locally and internationally, and platform operators like MultiChoice to realise that the level of their collective TV content pool is precipitously dropping and to come together to slow the loss of every drop as much as possible.
If they don't start to really work together to save the linear TV bundle as we have known it, they won't just lose out. They'll lose us.
