ONTAPtv.com adding local South African content and SABC library programming to its video-on-demand service in partnership with MMA and ReelAfrican.

ONTAPtv.com, the recently launched video-on-demand (VOD) service in South Africa, is adding new local content and some SABC library programming to its list of African titles.

The VOD player from China's PCCW Global is expanding its local content offering which is available on its African ONTAPtv package for R39 per month and has partnered with Maxum Media Accelerator (MMA) and ReelAfrican to bring additional SABC content to the service.

ONTAPtv.com will add the local comedy film Debt at the Funeral, and dramatic films like Second Chance, Frank Portrait, The Calling and River Zana in 2016.

ONTAPtv.com that launched in September also acquired 193 episodes of local South African drama series, films, gospel music videos and documentaries from ReelAfrican.

These include Jozi H, the first two seasons of Love Games, Adera and A Soweto Love Story, documentaries like the first season of Alexandra, the Miners Shot Down documentary film and Unhinged: Surviving Johannesburg.

"MMA and ReelAfrican are amongst a number of studio partnerships that we have in the pipeline to bring additional original first-class South African entertainment to watch anytime, anywhere, says Kgositsile Poonyane, ONTAPtv.com's head of consumer marketing.

"We are committed to continually improve our African content, as well as international content in line with feedback we are receiving from our customers," says Lindsay Servian, the head of ONTAPtv.com.

ONTAPtv.com as a VOD player is currently competing in South Africa with Naspers' ShowMax that launched a month earlier in August, as well as the struggling VIDI from The Times Media Group that's been struggling with poor uptake and consumer response since it launched at the end of 2014 and with Tiso Blackstar busy disinvesting from the VIDI business citing "weak market penetration".

Unsuccessful VIDI struggling with poor uptake of the Times Media Group's video-on-demand service; Tiso Blackstar pulling out of VIDI.

As quickly as it started South Africa's nascent video-on-demand (VOD) operators are coming under pressure largely due to a lack of fast and cheap broadband with VIDI from the Times Media Group (TMG) now struggling and under big pressure due to poor uptake.

Investor group Tiso Blackstar which has full ownership of the Times Media Group is pulling out of VIDI saying the purple video-on-demand service that was launched with great fanfare hasn't been a success since it went commercial exactly a year ago in September 2014.

VIDI recently launched a marketing campaign offering a Ferrari 458 Spider in an attempt to get more people to try the video service which at launch last year said that it would need 40 000 regular users to break even.

News of VIDI's poor uptake comes straight after the shuttering of the disastrous Altech Node. Altron similarly launched the Altech Node with big fanfare at the same time in September 2014, then struggled to offload the expensive flop a few months later but couldn't find any buyers.

Investment in the Altech Node gobbled up millions with a loss of R75 million for the six months to the end of August. "Increased competition in the video-on-demand (VOD) environment resulted in insufficient subscribers for the business to be viable," said Altron.

While the Altech Node is a gonner and with VIDI struggling with poor uptake, there's since been MTN's FrontRow VOD service, with Naspers' ShowMax that was launched in August this year, followed in mid-September by China's PCCW Global that launched its orange ONTAPtv.com service in South Africa as well.

Both ShowMax and ONTAPtv.com at their respective launch events refused to say how many users and subscribers they would need to be viable and successful but both ShowMax and ONTAPtv.com said there won't be immediate pressure.

ShowMax said within "a period" it will have to start showing results and Naspers said ShowMax will be unprofitable until at least 2017, while ONTAPtv.com said there won't be immediate pressure but that "the metric of success is measured in financial terms".

While Tiso Blackstar will exit the VIDI business within the next 12 months the VOD service struggling to gain traction is now busy "re-engineering the business" due to its "weak market penetration and the slow pace of meaningful broadband growth in South Africa". It's not clear what will happen to VIDI without Tiso Blackstar.

The burgeoning yet struggling VOD market in South Africa is happening before the arrival of Netflix which told TV with Thinus at the beginning of the year that it would definitely launch in South Africa before the end of 2016.

According to a just-released study by research firm BMI-TechKnowledge, South African consumers have a very low awareness of VOD providers with only 18% of people knowing what and who video-on-demand players are.

According to the study there could be between 692 000 and 917 500 active video-on-demand (VOD) households by 2020 in South Africa.

MultiChoice with DStv and its BoxOffice service stands out with the highest awareness as the leading pay-TV service, with low levels of awareness of the pure-play VOD providers," according to the market research.

Samsung launches South Africa's first news-on-demand, purpose-built eNCA app with video news on Samsung Smart TV's; first of its kind in Africa.

Samsung Smart TV's news-on-demand, purpose-built eNCA (DStv 403) app with video news for Smart TV's is a first of its kind in Africa.

Currently neither MultiChoice's DStv Explora nor MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up service provide any daily updated video-on-demand (VOD) TV news in its on demand content offering, and neither does streaming VOD services like the recently launched ShowMax or ONTAPtv for people who quickly want to get a sense of the day's news.

People with connected Samsung Smart TV sets are now however able to get some type of video news through using the app.

"We are excited to launch South Africa's first video-rich TV news app," says Matthew Thackrah, the deputy managing director and head of consumer electronics at Samsung Electronics South Africa.

"With progressively more connected technologies available in the market, consumers can access content across a variety of mediums. Our partnership with eNCA gives Samsung Smart TV owners a new way to consume news. The app means they can actively select the stories they want to learn more about, at their convenience," says Matthew Thackrah.

Samsung's eNCA app for South Africa has been designed with its Smart TV platform.

The eNCA news inserts on the app complement those featured on the eNCA website.

The eNCA app's emphasis is on video stories supported by minimal text for a visual experience, says Samsung. Users can access the text and images featured on the eNCA website through the Smart TV app if they want to supplement the stories with more depth.

Samsung says the existing eNCA Smart TV app is the second most popular app among Samsung Smart TV users in South Africa.

Samsung approached eNCA with the intention of collaborating with the 24-hour TV news channel from Sabido to offer viewers a value-added service.

The eNCA app also allows viewers to toggle a news ticker, that provides news headlines at the bottom of the TV screen that viewers can see scrolling wile they watch something else.

"Samsung Smart TV consumers are now able to watch the news on their terms – as and when they want to. They can also keep up to date with the latest headlines while watching TV."

"We are proud to deliver South Africa's first video-rich TV news app in partnership with Samsung," says Timothy Spira, general manager of eNCA's online division.

"When Samsung approached us to partner in developing and promoting a purpose-built eNCA app, we embraced the opportunity to be present on the leading Smart TV platform in South Africa."

ONTAPtv launches in South Africa as the latest video-on-demand service with 2 500 movies and episodes; will add exclusive local content.

ONTAPtv entered South Africa's fast-growing internet streaming video-on-demand (VOD) market with the launch of its new service offering streaming and downloads of shows and movies at the low entry point of R39 per month or R15 per movie.

The new service from Hong Kong's telecom HKT is done through its international operating division PCCW Global.

The launch of ONTAPtv is once again fast-upending the apple cart in South Africa's exploding VOD and SVOD market. It comes less than a month after the launch of Naspers' ShowMax, where it will also compete with Times Media Group's VIDI launched late last year, as well as MTN's FrontRow.

PCCW Global is introducing revolutionary features for the South African market with ONTAPtv in the suddenly, constantly one-upping game of brinkmanship of VOD players in South Africa - before the global giant Netflix has even launched.

The dramatic introduction of ShowMax and now ONTAPtv - both with slick interfaces, easy to use platforms and competitive prices for quality content is set to not just ferociously compete with each other within the VOD space and other competitors like VIDI, but also established satellite pay-TV operators like MultiChoice's DStv, On Digital Media's StarSat and the pay-TV broadcaster M-Net.

Like ShowMax, ONTAPtv has content from the vaults of the SABC archives, as well as from BBC Worldwide - indeed some of the same BBC Worldwide programming like Planet Earth also available on ShowMax.

ONTAPtv also has international content from Warner Bros, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as well as Chinese and other African content.

PCCW Global is also bringing brand-new and exclusive South African drama content to ONTAPtv soon, according to the company - something that ShowMax at launch also said it would be doing.

ONTAPtv will bring projects of the Maxum Media Accelerator (MMA) to its service later this year.

"This partnership [to produce local content] demonstrates our commitment to the development of exciting local content, whilst helping to grown the South African film and entertainment industry," says Lindsay Servian, the head of ONTAPtv.com.

PWWC Global says ONTAPtv has 2 500 movies and episodes of TV shows and is constantly adding more and will be cycling content regularly. Viewers can watch ONTAPtv through streaming, but can also download the content and watch it later.

Users have 48 hours to watch downloaded content before it expires and where content exists in high definition (HD) that content can be downloaded and watched on a big TV set for example with a HDMI cable connected to a smartphone or tablet.

"Customers can even link their devices to TVs for a great viewing experience. This is a major VOD innovation in South Africa and will, we believe, greatly expand the number of customers who will now be able to enjoy the service, and at a highly affordable price," says Lindsay Servian.

PWWC Global says ONTAPtv offers "a revolutionary  offer "à la carte approach" to watching video-on-demand.

ONTAPtv customers can choose from a range of packages specifically tailored to their viewing needs. Users can pay additionally to add more packages within the mega-pack offering.

The ONTAPtv app is free to download through the Google Play and iOS App stores. A free subscription with limited access is also available.

ONTAPtv's packages available at launch include the Family Package (R69 per month) with international TV series and movie content suitable for children under age 16. The content is predominantly in English and some Afrikaans content is included in the package. Additional content will be added regularly.

The TV Series Package (R69 permonth) includes international TV series content suitable for viewers who are 16 and older. Like the Family Package the content is predominantly in English, with some Afrikaans content also included.

The Movie Package (R69 per month) includes international movies for all ages. The content is predominantly in English.

ONTAPtv's Mega Pack (R89 per month) is the flagship product and includes all content available in the Family Package, TV Series Package and the Movie Package.

For R79 per month an ONTAPtv user can get two of the Family Package, TV Series Package and Movie Package together.

"Specials" Packages include the African Package for R39 per month, the Chinese Package for R88 per month and the CSI FightSport Package for R69 per month.

Single movie rentals on ONTAPtv costs R15 permovie for an older blockbuster and R25 per movie for a new blockbuster.

In a partnership with AlwaysOn, ONTAPtv also did a deal for data use with specially priced data packages when ONTAPtv is used at AlwaysOn Wi-Fi locations in South Africa like at airports, restaurants, shopping malls, hospitals and other public spaces.

This include a 15GB package for R29, or a 50GB package for R59, both of which are valid for 30 days.

New South African video-on-demand (VOD) service, OnTapTV, set to launch as rival for Naspers' ShowMax, TimesMedia Group's VIDI.

New South African video-on-demand (VOD) player OnTapTV is set to launch as a new service to rival the burgeoning field of VOD services existing of Naspers' recent new entrant ShowMax, Times Media Group's VIDI and MTN's FrontRow.

OnTapTV at www.ontaptv.com from China's PCCW will have content from BBC Worldwide - especially children's shows - the same as ShowMax, as well as content from the Hollywood studio, Warner Bros.