MultiChoice claims 'eNews' is one of the most watched channels on DStv Now while no such channel exists; adds Discovery's set of channels to DStv Now from January.

MultiChoice claims that the 'eNews' channel is one of the most watched TV channels live streamed on its DStv Now service - despite the fact that no such channel exists.

MultiChoice's DStv Now service from its DStv Digital Media division announced that it also further expanded its over-the-top (OTT) channel collection in January 2018 that now includes Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery Family and ID Investigation Discovery.

MultiChoice in a press release on Monday, said that the 'eNews' channel was one of the most watched channels on its DStv Now service during December 2017.

The problem is that eNews isn't a channel. MultiChoice most likely means either E! Entertainment (DStv 124) from NBCUniversal International Networks, or eNCA (DStv 403) from eMedia Investments that used to be known as the eNews Channel until it changed its name more than 5 and a half years ago in August 2012.

"E! News" does exists as the name of a daily show segment on E! Entertainment - it is that channel's daily TV news programme - but it is very unlikely that MultiChoice means that.

MultiChoice was asked what exactly it means by "eNews" and when there's a response this report will update with that. Update:  MultiChoice says the "eNews" is in fact eNCA.

Oddly, MultiChoice in its press release also refers to "kykNet" (it's actually kykNET).

"The top live channels streaming during this time were the SuperSport channels, M-Net, eNews, Mzansi Magic, kykNet, Comedy Central and M-Net Movies Smile," says MultiChoice in its statement about December 2017 viewing on DStv Now.

MultiChoice notes that the most watched shows on DStv Now during December 2017 were Binnelanders, The Queen, Isibaya, Boer Soek ‘n Vrou, The Imposter, Premier League, Lockdown, Paw Patrol, international rugby, Shameless, Isithembiso and Getroud met Rugby.

MultiChoice says usage of its DStv Now service increased by 18% in December 2017 over November 2017.

"Almost 20% of total usage of DStv Now is coming from DStv Compact customers, who received access to the service in May last year," says MultiChoice.

MultiChoice says the bulk of DStv Now usage over the festive period came from Android devices in the Gauteng province.

"Local content and channels, along with SuperSport, continue to be the top performers across all platforms."

MultiChoice says it added the set of channels from Discovery Networks International from January 2018 to DStv Now as live streamed channels. These include Discovery Channel (DStv 121), TLC (DStv 135), Discovery Family (DStv 136) and ID Investigation Discovery (DStv 171).

Interestingly ID Investigation Discovery used to be IDx on DStv. However, at some point after Investigation Discovery was changed to IDx (ID Xtra) in January 2016, it has quietly changed back to ID on MultiChoice's platform.

DStv SHOWCASE SEPTEMBER 2017: DStv Now service, seeing 'fantastic growth', keeps adding TV channels; will be rolled out to all DStv subscribers before the end of 2017.

MultiChoice's DStv Now service that is seeing "fantastic growth" according to the pay-TV operator's digital boss, keeps adding DStv TV channels as it edges ever closer to a true over-the-top (OTT) mirror of the traditional direct-to-home (DTH) DStv satellite service, with DStv Now that will be made available to all DStv subscribers before the end of the year.

By bringing Naspers' subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service Showmax into the fold under DStv Digital Media, MultiChoice also wants to bring the best of what Showmax has done to the past two years, to the DStv Now service.

"We've seen fantastic growth of our DStv Now product," said Graeme Cummings, DStv Digital Media general manager at Thursday's DStv Media Showcase for the press held at MultiChoice City in Randburg, Johannesburg.

"The last 8 months we've seen massive uptake in play events. We now sit at 8 million 'play events' per month - that's an increase of about 100% in the last 6 months."

Graeme Cummings said it represents 140% growth, year-on-year, in monthly active users.

"This tells us that these behaviours of consumers are real, they're starting to translate into the second-screen viewing and this on-demand viewing which bodes well for a product like DStv Now."

"There's been a 361% growth in year-on-year web video plays. The web is still our biggest platform for usage. We put that down to the fact that your browser screen is a bigger screen than your mobile phone, and people want to watch their content on bigger screens."

"So it's our biggest platform but we see impressive growth in the app space of the DStv Now product as well - 264% year-on-year growth in DStv Now app video plays."

"From a content perspective the story is still about local content and sports content," said Graeme Cummings.

"Our local dramas and soaps feature really well on DStv Now, they're our most popular DStv On Demand titles and then sport from a live streaming perspective - everybody tunes in on a Saturday or a Friday morning if there's SuperRugby to watch on a SuperSport channel."

"So really its about sport and local. We've got Game of Thrones in there. Game of Thrones is a phenomena."

"There's been good uptake by our DStv Compact and DStv Compact Plus users. They're loving the product."

"We also launched an additional 26 TV channels into the service. I'm happy to announce today that Comedy Central (DStv 122) is the latest addition to that channel line-up," said Graeme Cummings.

Other channels that were recently added include the SABC's SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3, e.tv, SundanceTV, SuperSport 10, SuperSport 11, SuperSport 12, Ginx, and eMedia Investment's eNCA (DStv 403) TV news channel.

"The free-to-air channels are proving very popular, the remaining sports channels that we didn't have on DStv Now we've now added, as well as the e.tv and eNCA channels, SundanceTV and Ginx."

"Really the goal is to get as much coverage, and get all of our channels onto the platform, and we're going through that. It's a journey that we're on, there's rights clearances that we go through. But we've made good progress in the last couple of months."

"We also announced that we would open up casting and enable Airplay and Chromecast and I'm happy to say that that is now done. We've had some good feedback from some of our early adopters. And again, this speaks to that need from the audience to want to be able to play their content on bigger screens," said Graeme Cummings.

"We've also made some improvements to connecting your DStv Explora. The bigger part of our base still receives their content through their DStv Explora decoder and we're on a journey to get as many of those Exploras connected to the internet as possible."

"One of the things that we've introduced is a new WiFi Connector, and we've also made massive improvements to the on-screen set-up, so if you plug this WiFi Connector into your DStv Explora, you basically walk through a set of steps on your Explora interface and we will scan the network and allow you to put your password in, and connect that device."

"Those users who have connected their Explora, the most active amongst them, we seen them downloading more than 20 shows a month, which we think is good progress," said Graeme Cummings.

"We've also made some improvements to the download duration, so previously, anyone who was downloading their content to mobile devices, had 7 days to press play on that content. We've extended that to 30 days now."

"This is a big win for those users going on holiday. They may be downloading a bunch of kids shows; they're not going to expire after a week. You're going to have 30 days to press play."

"The restriction once you've pressed play is still in place - and that a studio restriction. It's a 48 hour window [you get to watch]."

"We've also made some improvements to the interfaces and content discovery on the Explora and DStv Now," said Graeme Cummings.

"Chief amongst these is users saying 'We don't know which channel this particular show is on', 'I don't know what time the show is on', 'I've caught up with the last couple of episodes but I don't know does it air on a Monday? Does it air on a Tuesday?"

"So we've added some meta-data onto the screens, things like channel numbers and logos that will tell you this is an M-Net show or a kykNET show. We've added the TX date into the meta-data so we'll tell you now that Suits airs on this particular day and this time."

"We've also got the NEW indicator. So previously if you were interested in Suits, you would have to go into that stack to see how many episodes were unwatched. I think that was annoying and some of the feedback we got from users was 'How do we make navigation a little bit easier?"

"So we've got that little indicator that we've introduced that will tell you how many episodes in that stack are unwatched which we think is going to make life a little bit easier."

"Then we've made a couple of improvements to our live TV experience."

"As we've added all of these extra channels over the last two years - I think we're streaming 90 channels to DStv Premium customers now - it's become more difficult to navigate all these channels."

"So if you interested in news channels,you pretty much have to scroll three or four pages down to get to the news channels or the sports channels. So we've introduced some genre navigation into the app and the website. We've also changed the layout on that page [from 2 column to 4 column layout]," said Graeme Cummings.

DStv Now will also be opened up to all DStv subscribers said Graeme Cummings to include "DStv Family, DStv Access and DStv EasyView customers."

"Once we've done that, pretty much every DStv customer will have access to their content on the go."

MultiChoice will do this before the end of 2017.

"We're also making improvements to live TV recommendations. One of the things we've realised is, this DStv Now application is an on-demand, on-the-go type experience, but a lot of that consumption is actually linear consumption."

"It's people tuning in for sporting events, or the Idols event on a Sunday night and what we need to start doing is surfacing some of those linear recommendations in an on-demand way," said Graeme Cummings.

"Previously we had all of these recommendation strips in the application that could surface the most popular content in an on-demand world. We want to do the same thing from a linear perspective."

"So if you open up the application on a Friday night for example, yes, we're going to have all your on-demand recommendations, but we also want to be able to tell you that this particular episode is going to air in 5 minutes, do you want to watch it? Do you want to stream it live?"

DStv Now is also working on a "watchlist" recommendation feature that will be implemented, and helping viewers to find recently watched shows.

Speaking about Showmax that is being folded into MultiChoice's DStv Digital Media unit, Graeme Cummings said DStv Digital Media wants to bring the best of what Showmax has done to DStv Now.

"We're looking at the best of what Showmax has been able to bring to their customer base, we're looking at some of the  features and innovations that we've created in the DStv Now space, and what we're trying to do is really to bring the best of both worlds to our customers going forward."

"It's really a conscious effort on our part to make sure that what Showmax has invested in and built over the last two years, and what DStv Now has been able to do, we want to bring those two worlds together for the sake of our customers and give them the best of everything," said Graeme Cummings.

DStv SHOWCASE SEPTEMBER 2017: MultiChoice, M-Net and SuperSport's top bosses reveal their personal TV viewing choices with remarkable candour, humour and insight.

Some of South Africa's top TV executives - the TV bosses of MultiChoice, M-Net and SuperSport - have revealed a bit of what they're personally watching on DStv and Showmax, sharing their viewing preferences with the press with remarkable candour, humour and insight.

At MultiChoice's DStv media showcase held on Thursday at MultiChoice City in Randburg, South Africa, the clever stage-setting opening act revolved around Mark Rayner (MultiChoice CEO), Yolisa Phahle (M-Net CEO) and Gideon Khobane (SuperSport CEO) sitting down and sharing their personal TV watch lists.

The extremely busy top-level TV executives took a big chunk of time out of their busy schedules to talk to the media on Thursday at the DStv media showcase, making a great impression on journalists through creating an immediate, and personal connection with the press.

The TV executive trio told TV critics and journalists covering television and broadcasting what shows and programming they're watching across the various channels available on DStv and Naspers' subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Showmax that is now being folded into MultiChoice's DStv Digital Media division.

"I'm finishing off House of Cards on my playlist, and I also have a series recording for This Is Us," said the always-affable Mark Rayner, MultiChoice CEO.

"I'm behind the Boks in these dark days, so tuning in to the Rugby Championship. And then, I'm keen to try Taboo on Showmax - I've heard it's a great one."

"Taboo is really edgy stuff, the Showmax team is super-excited about it and it's a cool series. The next time I get some time to binge-watch, the next rainy Sunday, maybe I can tuck in for a few episodes of that."

Mark Rayner said the amount of great TV content coming out of Hollywood and other areas of the world "is staggering". "What the big challenge is now, is try trying to help people to get to the content that they need to watch."

"It's not a case of us saying at 8pm you're going to be happy with what we give you."

"There's so much available content now, we have to help and direct people. And people's TV tastes are becoming more fragmented and niche - and not decided upon by a broadcaster's schedule."

Other mere mortals would have gone and collapsed at home, but up next was a jet-lagged but sprightly Yolisa Phahle who flew back to South Africa from a business trip in Nigeria and literally landed early on Thursday morning in Johannesburg.

Yet she still made time to race over to the cinema auditorium inside MultiChoice City to talk to the media and to answer questions.

"I do love reality shows, so I'm tuned in to My Kitchen Rules SA, House Hunters International, Location, Location, Location and Married at First Sight. And, of course, I've got to keep it local as well, so I'm keeping up with The Queen."

"You know you have parents who say 'we don't let our children watch TV; only weekends," said Yolisa Phahle.

"Liars! They're liars!" the funny Mark Rayner hilariously chipped in, followed by laughter from the press corps.

"My children are brought up in front of the TV, so we'll see how that turns out," said the self-deprecating Yolisa Phahle also to big laughter, who interestingly revealed there's 6 TV sets all through her house - something that seems totally fitting for the person who is in charge of M-Net.

"We've got 4 small bedrooms in the house, so there's one TV set in each bedroom - which people say is also not good for your marriage. We have a TV in the kitchen; we have a TV in the lounge."

"So we literally watch TV all the time," said Yolisa Phahle.

"In fact when I was a child, we didn't watch TV at all. Because my father made me read. And then we had an older cousin who came from Ladysmith in 1975 and they did not have a TV. And they watched television the whole time."

"And my sister and I who were very small then, became addicted to TV and then when my cousin went, my father actually got rid of the TV because he said 'this is not going anywhere, you're never going to become a doctor if you keep watching TV".

"He was right!" said Mark Rayner.

"So, he was absolutely right," said Yolisa Phahle. "So I love TV, and I tend to watch what I need to for work. So if we're doing a new drama, I'll research loads of drama. If we're doing telenovelas I'll research telenovelas. But at heart, I'm a lifestyle person."

"Anything to do with houses, buying houses, changing houses - My Kitchen Rules South Africa I have to mention just because it's on M-Net. I don't know if you've seen it but it literally takes a local version of an international format to another level."

"The production values, the story-telling, the characters. Every Sunday I set my clock and I watch it live, I don't watch it on DStv Catch Up, I've got to watch it live."

"I love house programmes, I love travel. I say Travel Channel but it's really House Hunters International that I watch."

Yolisa Phahle said The Queen on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) is "South Africa's Queen".

"It's exciting not just because it's such a great show but it competes incredibly well with another long-running soap - and it's always tough to do that but we've actually done it, so well done to Reneilwe Sema (M-Net director of local entertainment channels)."

"The Queen is also a production company that is run by the main actors [Shona and Connie Ferguson] so we've literally taken these iconic South African actors that everybody grew up watching, and they now employ people and they have one of the top shows on Mzansi Magic and DStv and it's a great success story."

Up next was Gideon Khobane, SuperSport CEO who said "right now I'm tuned in to Insecure and Ray Donovan for a bit of comedy and drama".

"Sport is a must for me, so definitely Homeground and a bit of wrestling on WWE Raw and Smackdown. And I'm also watching Rome on Showmax."

"Ray Donovan is very dark. I like it because it takes you away. Everybody's meant to be moral and he's immoral. So for me it's perfect. It takes you away."

Gideon Khobane who went to New York recently with certain select media to watch wrestling for just over a week in the Barclay Center in Brooklyn after SuperSport signed a contract to broadcast WWE wrestling on DStv since September, said it's "the pinnacle of sports entertainment".

"When you watch their live events, it's incredible - the production values, the staging, the pyrotechnics, the entertainment value, it's just out of this world. I'm always in awe when I see how much effort they put into production, and just staging."

"We do a lot of live events here at M-Net. But when I see the scale that they go to - they don't spare any bucks to put an event together. Their stars are actors. They brief them that they're not athletes - you're an actors. They're some of the best actors in the world in my view."

"When I watch series I want to be taken away from my everyday life. The drama series Rome is just one of those things as well. And there's a lot of immorality. I don't know - maybe something's wrong with me. I'm attracted to like, the dark side somewhat, you know," said Gideon Khobane to laughter.

"I also want to touch on Homeground - it's SuperSport's first co-production with Mzansi Magic."

"The audience of Mzansi Magic is phenomenal. So we've taken the sports genre and lifestyle genre and put them together, and the show is proving to be a phenomenal success."

'My only gripe with Nkateko Mabaso [general manager for M-Net South Africa] is that the show should be at 21:00, but he insists on putting The Queen at 21:00," Gideon Khobane quipped.



PERSONAL TAKE:
■ The idea for this panel session was smart, inspiring, and creative, and was executed in a practical way just as cleverly as it was conceived.

■ It's certainly the first time I can remember that the MultiChoice, SuperSport and M-Net execs ever talked about their personal TV viewing choices, let alone doing so together. Again, a very clever concept; novel and new.

■ Coming right at the beginning, it cleverly set just the right tone and mood for MultiChoice's DStv media showcase since the executives were all open, personal, funny and revealing.

■ These well-regarded, experienced and formidable TV executives gave their insight, but more importantly they gave their time. Together the top-most executives - appearing personally and being personal, warm, and sincere - signaled that the press and the day's media engagement matters.

■ Upon reflection it's again odd having to hear how SuperSport took some media somewhere, who did basically nothing about it.
Having hyped up its WWE rights acquisition, you have to wonder what on earth is SuperSport's return on investment (ROI) on this.
Where's the articles? Where's the stories and reporting? Where are the interviews, impression pieces and the interviews with all the wrestlers?

It felt a bit weird sitting in a DStv media showcase as media, having to hear second-hand about WWE wrestling and how presumably great it is, when SuperSport chose media who actually a month earlier experienced it but failed so far to do much about it, and very likely won't.

If the WWE wrestling truly was this big thing, why didn't SuperSport do more, earlier, from a media engagement perspective? Either SuperSport chose lame duck media, or the press failed to find the wrestling interesting enough to bother afterwards.


■ The brain of the SuperSport presenter Neil Andrews should be donated to science to help in the search for the cure of degenerative brain disease.

In action, as a social interaction whirlwind, just like on TV, he is absolutely brilliant at absorbing, responding, reflecting and guiding.

The veteran sports anchor as a perpetual in-the-moment presenter and who was the MC for the 3rd time at a DStv media showcase, is simply brilliant at not just picking up and remembering names, but for a vast general knowledge, and for keeping every fact and what is being said uncannily in quick-access memory.

Who knows how big Neil Andrews' random access memory (RAM) is? He can literally remember tens of journalists' names after hearing someone's name just once, and brings up random facts and what people said in surprisingly insightful (and funny!) ways.

John Kotsaftis out as CEO of DStv Digital Media at MultiChoice, replaced by Mike Raath.

You're reading it here first.

John Kotsaftis is out and quietly gone as CEO of DStv Digital Media; replaced by Mike Raath in the position at the digital division of MultiChoice's satellite pay-TV operation.

MultiChoice made no announcement of the moves and John Kotsaftis' departure but in response to a media enquiry from TV with Thinus last week confirmed that the respected and well-liked executive "has moved into a new business development role for the MultiChoice group across the continent".

John Kotsaftis joined DStv Digital Media, formerly known as DStv Mobile and then DStv Online, in May 2009.

Mike Raath has now taken over and was appointed as the new CEO of DStv Digital Media from April.

Mike Raath has been with the Naspers group for the past 10 years and with DStv Digital Media for the past 6 years.

MultiChoice adds 3 TV channels to DStv Now app for DStv Premium subscribers - Eurochannel, ShortsTV and Ginx TV - for 3 months.

MultiChoice is adding 3 TV channels to its DStv Now app for DStv Premium subscribers for 3 months: Eurochannel, ShortsTV and Ginx TV.

While the DStv Now app is free to download for all DStv customers, the video content can only be watched by DStv Premium subscribers.

The DStv Now app allows users to watch content on Android and iOS phones and tablets.

Eurochannel, Ginx TV and ShortsTV will be watchable through DStv Now from mid-March 2015 to mid-June 2015.

ShortsTV carries short films, including African short films.

Ginx TV based in the United Kingdom is a video gaming TV channel, offering video reviews and news from the world of video gaming and video gaming culture.

Eurochannel is an English language TV channel featuring European programming, including movies and TV series.

"We are pleased to acquire the new channels for DStv Now and hope they will resonate with short film junkies, video gamers and European culture lovers," says John Kotsaftis, CEO of DStv Digital Media.