by Thinus Ferreira
Telkom's video streaming service TelkomONE abruptly went offline on Wednesday without any prior warning, saying it will make "an exciting service announcement" with TelkomONE being taken over by the SABC to be relaunched and rebranded as SABC+.
An on-screen message on the TelkomONE website only reads: "Your TelkomONe entertainment service will be temporarily unavailable from midnight on 15 November to Thursday 17 November 2022. We apologise for the service interruption".
The website says TelkomONE will be making an "exciting service announcement".
It's unclear what happens to TelkomONE subscribers who have already paid for the weekly and monthly packages and how they'll be refunded for the service unavailability.
The TelkomONE service downtime comes almost two years after Telkom launched its video streaming service in November 2020, offering both a free and subscription service, with linear TV channels being streamed including global TV news channels, as well as a catalogue of on-demand content from the SABC as well as international content providers.
TelkomONE competes in a constantly getting more crowded over-the-top (OTT) space with the South African public broadcaster soon to launch its own video streaming service, possibly called SABC+, likely before the end of this year.
Besides TelkomONE South African consumers already have access to streaming services including Netflix SA, MultiChoice's Showmax, eMedia's eVOD, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, BritBox SA, Acorn TV, VIU, TruthTV, WOW Presents Plus and MarqueeTV.
NBCUniversal's Peacock isn't available yet, and Warner Bros. Discovery is still to announce a new name for its combined HBO Max and discovery+ streamer and when it will launch in South Africa. Paramount will likely launch its Paramount+ in South Africa sometime during 2023.
