'Plus' movie channels doing well for TopTV; subscribers like automatic time-shifting on additional channels.

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True. The so-called "plus" channels - Top Movies+2 (TopTV 101) and Top Movies+24 (TopTV 102) - are doing well for TopTV. Viewers are watching. 

Although Top Movies (TopTV 100) as TopTV's main movie channel has two time-shifted channels - Top Movies+2 showing all movies 2 hours later behind the main channel and with TopMovies+24 a day behind the main channel - TopTV says viewers love the opportunity to "time-shift" movies.

Heather Kennedy, the vice president for marketing told journalists and TV writers last week at the pay TV platform's first ever programming preview held in Cape Town that movies remain a top draw for pay TV audiences. 

She said TopTV subscribers love movies and series. She said Top Movies+2 and Top Movies+24 are "performing very well". "People who possibly discover a movie which has already started know they have more convenient opportunities to catch it - or to watch it again."

[It's therefore no wonder that the SABC, planning 18 TV channels in the public broadcaster's migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) has been thinking of employing similar time-shifted channels to help fill out the number of new channels. Viewers without VCRs and PVRs get automatic time-shifted "buffered" TV content with "plus" channels.]

BREAKING. TopTV reacts to the SABC about pay TV 'stealing' viewers: 'Welcome to the real world. It's called competition.'

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"Welcome to the real world."

That is TopTV's response to the SABC after the SABC's new CEO Lulama Mokhobo last week told parliament that the SABC's viewership is declining due to the growth in pay TV in South Africa and pay TV options becoming more affordable for the SABC's target market.

I asked Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing, for reaction and comment on the SABC's statements of last week, during a Q&A session of TopTV's programming press preview held in Cape Town.

"Welcome to the real world," she said, and then more jokingly: "It's called competition".

Heather Kennedy continued to explain the issue on a more serious note and why it's happening, whilst underscoring the importance of public broadcasting.

"It's happening everywhere. The very same thing happened in America. You had the four main broadcast networks and then a proliferation of special interest TV channels and subscription television services. The viewership of traditional broadcasting channels are now way down from where it was in the past and pay TV's climbing. There is an ongoing and huge fragmentation of the viewing market. Same in the United Kingdom. And in the rest of the world. It's part of the progression of viewing markets."

"Free TV plays an important role in providing national news and that kind of broad general interest content. And then pay TV provides an additional alternative and more options and choices to TV viewers - especially with a multi-channel line-up."

"The SABC needs to face the reality. It is what is going to happen," said Heather Kennedy. "When it comes to television, consumers and viewers want more and more choices. When I think of cars in South Africa just a few decades ago, you had Ford or Volkswagen. Now you look at the cars on the road - I mean there's just this huge number of choices and all these different models for every market segment."

"It's about more choices and more options and fulfilling more viewers' needs. In some respects I actually feel in our country we were held back compared to what's been happening internationally for a while. But we're moving very fast now."

Heather Kennedy stressed however that public broadcasting is very important and fulfills a very important role. The public broadcaster's channels are also carried on TopTV's platform.

"The emphasis shouldn't be on that [viewers moving to pay TV]. I feel it's important that pay TV needs to work alongside free TV."

BREAKING. TopTV on its porn debacle: 'It was never our intention to become the porn channel.'

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"We didn't want to be known as the porn channel. It was never our intention to become the porn channel," TopTV told journalists and TV critics at the South African pay TV operator's first ever programming preview in Cape Town.

TopTV was asked about whether the pay TV operator has reached a decision yet on whether to again pursue its stand-alone pornographic package of channels after South Africa's TV regulator turned it down earlier this year.

"It's with the lawyers. It's still with the lawyers," said Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing, when asked whether TopTV has reached a decision yet on whether it will be appealing the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa's (Icasa) decision. Icasa decided not to grant TopTV's application for authorisation to start broadcasting pornographic TV channels.

It started when TopTV - which didn't have an authorisation of application letter from Icasa - told subscribers in a letter at the end of last year that it would start a new stand-alone, separate pornographic bouquet requiring a separate PIN, during the week of Christmas 2011.

At the same time TopTV which has not added new channels, started losing channels from its normal bouquet when channel providers ceased broadcasting. That lead existing subscribers to feel that TopTV was suddenly focusing its attention on a niche product instead of improving its main general offering. The former CEO Vino Govender who has since resigned, also said at TopTV's launch that TopTV wouldn't have pornographic channels.

TopTV was however under immense pressure to launch the porn bouquet since it had already signed broadcasting rights with the European company which it stood to lose if it didn't start broadcasting the channels. Public outroar followed, organisations called for a boycott of TopTV and TopTV advertisers and asking TopTV subscribers to cancel, TopTV investors threatened to disinvest, TopTV and Icasa went to court, and TopTV didn't show up at its own public hearing at Icasa where it's public application for the bouquet was heard.

The embarrassing public porn battle did huge damage to TopTV brand reputation. Eddie Mbalo is the new interim CEO of TopTV which turned two last week.

"The timing was wrong," admitted Heather Kennedy. "It all happened when a company called PSat suddenly came forward and advertised porn; told people they will be showing porn and that people can get TopTV, throw TopTV's smartcard away and get porn through our decoder. At the same time we had lodged an application at Icasa for adult content. And always our intention was for a completely different package, from Playboy. Then events unfolded and I don't need to unpackage it further."

"Our focus is and remains on family viewing. We didn't and don't want to be seen as an adult service. Our focus is on family and family viewing. But there is a market for adult content,'' she said. "Interestingly, Sky in the United Kingdom has 17 adult channels in their basic bouquet - un-PIN-coded to be seen by anyone. Of course we do have in South Africa a slightly different market," she said.

She said TopTV will continue to strengthen it content offering in future as an affordable, pay TV alternative option in South Africa. 

BREAKING. TopTV: 'Television is a perishable product - we need to do more content marketing.'

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TopTV, at the South African pay TV operator's first ever programming press preview in Cape Town, told journalists and TV critics that TopTV's focus will henceforth be much more on the pay TV platform's content as opposed to TopTV itself.

TopTV's Heather Kennedy, the vice president for marketing, unspooled a bundle of beautifully produced trailers. It included promos for various upcoming specific shows, promos for movie themes which includes specific movies, and specific channels ranging from Top Explore and Top History, programming on the African Movie Channel (AMC) and Top Movies.

"TV is a perishable product," said Heather Kennedy. "We need to do more content marketing."  She said there will be an even bigger emphasis to tell subscribers about specific enticing upcoming programming that is coming up on TopTV.

"We don't have movies first. But people who watch just the SABC's 3 channels and e.tv will know that the movie selection there is limited. We have opened up and created a second window which never existed before. We show very recent movies as soon as we can get them after the competition," said Heather Kennedy.

BREAKING. TopTV on new channels: Space for 8 channels left, 'constantly looking at different channel proposals', working on a sport strategy.

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TopTV, at the South African pay TV operator's first ever programming press preview held in Cape Town, answered the question that journalists and TV critics most wanted to ask: what about new TV channels.

TopTV which turned two last week since it launched in May 2010 haven't added any significant new TV channels since except for new channels AMC (African Movie Channel) and NHK World replacing HiNolly and CurrentTV which ceased broadcasting.

"We have to be careful since we have limited satellite capacity left and we have to think carefully," said Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing. In answer to another question she said TopTV has space for about 8 TV channels left and that further capacity will become available later in the year when another satellite is launched into orbit from Europe.

"We are looking. We are constantly working on it. The relevant people are constantly looking at different channel proposals. It is important for a pay TV service to constantly improve its content offering to subscribers and TopTV is really working hard on it. You have to keep giving your subscribers more and we are evaluating."

Regarding sport she explained the difficulties around acquiring sports rights and sports content and went through TopTV's available channels offering some sport coverage and explained the value proposition of each channel and showed a highlight reel of Setanta Africa.

Regarding the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London Heather Kennedy said the SABC has the free-to-air broadcasting rights (the SABC channels are carried on TopTV) and DStv the rest.

"Sport is important but we do also have a lot of subscribers who are perfectly happy without it and when they want to watch a big game go to friends' homes or the pub to watch it there together."

"We've been working on a sport strategy," said Heather Kennedy. "All I can say at this moment is watch this space."

BREAKING. TopTV on PVR: 'We cannot not have a PVR. It is being worked on and it will be rolled out', but no definite date yet.

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TopTV, at the South African pay TV operator's first ever programming press preview for journalists and TV critics in Cape Town, said a PVR - a personal video recoder enabling subscribers to record shows on the set-top box (STB) - is coming and is being worked on, although there isn't a definite date yet.

Asked by Tashi Tagg from TVSA what the latest is around TopTV's PVR plans, Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing said "we cannot not have a PVR. It is being worked on and it will be rolled out. I don't have a definite date for you yet but it is coming. You can't be a pay TV service and not have a PVR eventually. It is getting attention."

TopTV turned two last week since the pay TV operator launched in May 2010.

BREAKING. TopTV on Top One: 'It's supposed to be our flagship channel but it's struggling.'

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TopTV, at the South African pay TV operator's first ever programming press preview held in Cape Town, told journalists and TV critics that TopTV's Top One (TopTV 150) channel is struggling due to various factors which leads to viewers tuning out.

"Top One is supposed to be our flagship channel but it's struggling a bit. We have plans to fix it up a bit," said Heather Kennedy, TopTV vice president for marketing.

Top One is supposed to be, and has been created to be, TopTV best general entertainment channel. It's supposed to be the showcase for the pay TV operator's premium TV content but Heather Kennedy said Top One has been falling short of that goal.

Prompted for more specifics on what exactly TopTV has identified as problems with Top One, Heather Kennedy said viewers are unhappy with repeats and some of the type of content.

"Top One is going to be strengthened with more local content as one of the strategies to further improve the channel for subscribers,'' she said.

BREAKING. TopTV: We're focused on getting some new content on Top Expore and Top History.

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TopTV, at the South African pay TV operator's first ever press preview for journalists and TV critics in Cape Town, said that its self-compiled "Top" channels which are criticised for too many repeats, is getting attention.

Heather Kennedy, the vice president for marketing, singled out Top Explore (TopTV 300) and Top Hisotry (TopTV 301) and told journalists that these channels' content are being looked at.

"For Top Explore and Top History we're focused on getting some new content there. We have been getting new content which viewers will start to see soon," she said.

She explained that even though these channels are self-compiled, meaning TopTV puts the channels together, that it's actually physically done for TopTV from Germany.

"Top Explore and Top History are actually packaged for us by a German provider. These channels will have some local South African content. Some of the shows are South African from time to time. We do try and take local content where we can. What happens is that the German provider buys from us [meaning broadly South Africa] and then puts it on the channel. So that's the roundabout way how South African content gets on it."

BREAKING. TopTV on its Top Star Indian bouquet: 'Really good channels and much more affordable than DStv's Indian channels.'

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TopTV told journalists and TV critics at the pay TV operator's first ever press preview in Cape Town that its Indian bouquet named Top Star is great value for money, shows very recent Bollywood hits and is available as an add-on to any of TopTV's basic packages.

"Content and price wise our Indian package, Top Star, is great," said Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing. "Our Indian package is something we need to push harder."

TopTV's Top Star Indian bouquet consists of the Top Star Hindi general entertainment channel, the Star Gold movie channel with Bollywood titles, Star Vijay with Tamil entertainment, and Channel [V] which is a youth channel with music videos, concerts and reality-based talent shows. The Top Star bouquet costs R99.

"They're really good channels and much more affordable than DStv's Indian channels," said Heather Kennedy. "They're very, very good value for money and the channels show very recent movies. Movies are very fresh and very recent someof them as quick as on circuit two months ago."

BREAKING. TopTV on 'Get MTV Base campaign': We are aware of the campaign but we can't get the channel.

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TopTV told the press at its first ever press preview event in Cape Town that the South African pay TV operator is aware of a ground roots campaign by subscribers to get MTV Base (DStv 322) as a TV channel but that it is not going to be possible.

Discussing the various music channels available on the TopTV platform, Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing, revealed that there is a "Get MTV Base campaign'" which was started on social media by subscribers who desperately want TopTV to add the channel.

"We hear them; we definitely hear them. We are aware of the 'Get MTV Base campaign'. Unfortunately we can't get MTV Base as a channel for our platform since MTV Base belongs exclusively to DStv," Heather Kennedy said.

BREAKING. TopTV on Al Mizan: 'Changing and revamping the channel' and making the Muslim TV channel better for subscribers.

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TopTV, at its first programming press preview for journalists and TV critics in Cape Town, said that there had been some issues around the Al Mizan (TopTV 355) Muslim TV channel which is getting a big revamp.

The South African pay TV operator added the Muslim TV channel in November 2010.

"With Al Mizan TopTV is in the process of changing and revamping the channel and making it better for our subscribers," said Heather Kennedy, TopTV's vice president for marketing.

She didn't specify or went into any details about what the issues was.

BREAKING. TopTV holds its first ever programming press preview for journalists and TV critics in Cape Town.

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TopTV turned two last week and today the South African pay TV operator did its first ever programming press preview for journalists and TV critics in Cape Town.

Last month I was upset that TopTV was planning on only having a preview event for Johannesburg press only while the bigger chunk of the real press covering television in South Africa - both in terms of reach, mettle and comprehensive coverage - are actually based in Cape Town.

At today's press preview TopTV answered any and all questions journalists had, showed sizzle reels, trailers and on-screen promos of new programming and shows, went through programming highlights channel by channel, and held an educational session with the media about the brand.

Heather Kennedy, TopTV vice president for marketing flew in from Johannesburg and fronted the programming press preview for May to July held in a conference room at the 5 star trendy-lux The Pepper Club Hotel. It included a finger lunch afterwards where the press mingled with food like mini-hamburgers, sauteed chicken on sticks; even colourful cupcakes.

She started off by showing the press a video message from TopTV's interim CEO, Eddie Mbalo.

Heather Kennedy answered everything. Questions were as diverse as Seventeen magazine who wanted to know what youth programming TopTV has, tvplus magazine who asked about new channels, Tashi Tagg from TVSA who asked about local talk shows nobody even knew existed and when TopTV will get a PVR.

She fielded a myriad of questions from various journalists and publications ranging from the TLC channel, ASTV, the Indian bouquet, the porno debacle and Top One to TopTV's free installation subsidy and decoder costs, kids channels, what the company's turnaround strategy and restructuring entails and what the popular channels are.

She also revealed the look of TopTV's new print and television marketing campaign.

Heather Kennedy explained what channels are packaged elsewhere, that local TV content is important to TopTV but how it all factors into the pay TV operator's overall compilation system. She talked about the new interim CEO Eddie Mbalo and how he was adamant that being CEO is only an interim measure, how TopTV is intent on listening to subscribers, is talking more, and explained in very honest terms TopTV's problem with sport and acquiring sport content and channels.

She knew all of the journalists - many whom she's never met face to face before - by name before they had name tags on. During questions, she also addressed and answered them, prefaced by their name. She spoke glowing of TopTV's on-air promos for different channels and the people who produce them.

Heather Kennedy didn't rush anything, although the questions kept coming. She didn't have all the answers, but tried and spoke to background to give context where she didn't have a specific answer.

When journalists made comments regarding TopTV matters or matters relating to specific channels ranging from ASTV to Top Gospel and third-party channels Heather Kennedy took notes from behind her podium.

With many tricky questions (not from me) like "Which news channel is better, MSNBC or Fox News?" Heather Kennedy deftly gave answers like a TopTV mother who loves all her children equally. "The one is far left, the one is far right, it depends on your personal perspective and the point of view from which you want to get your news," she said.

She explained how unique CurrentTV was which TopTV lost as a TV channel and said there wasn't really anything TopTV could ever get to replace it. She had surprises, like One Music which was actually back (who knew?) after the whole "HiNolly, ByeNolly HiTV" collapse. She said the Top Movies +2 and Top Movies +24 movie channels are actually watched and are popular.

Heather Kennedy elicited laughs from journalists when she said the kids channels are the ones people complain about the least "because I don't have children, but there's always new babies being born and new children who haven't seen any of it before".

Everyone laughed again when she said that the movie 2012 about the end of the world and scheduled for July should probably have been scheduled for the end of the year.