Why eMedia changed the name before launch of its video streaming service from Openview Plus to eVOD.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia originally started out with the plan last year to launch e.tv's video streaming service under the brand name of Openview+ but changed it some months before it launched last week to eVOD to avoid confusion with Openview and to make a clear distinction that eVOD is its own service and not an add-on or "plus"-extension of its existing Openview satellite TV service.

Last week eMedia Investments launched eVOD as e.tv's homegrown,"freemium" video streaming service, filled with content from its existing and expanding linear e.tv channels set.

e.tv plans to invest R100 million per year to produce 10 eOriginal films and 4 eOriginal TV series annually that will be made available on eVOD first before broadcast to drive sampling and uptake of its streamer.

eVOD joins a crowded video streaming services field in South Africa with ITV Studios and the BBC's BritBox SA that also launched last week, and the existing Showmax from MultiChoice, Netflix SA, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, PCCW Media's VIU, Vodacom Video Play and TelkomONE. 

The SABC, far behind in the streaming race, plans to launch its own video streamer, modelled after the BBC's iPlayer, before the end of the current financial year and South African consumers are still waiting for other global streamers like WarnerMedia's HBO Max, along with Disney+, Paramount+, NBCUniversal's Peacock and Discovery+ to launch locally.

Last year, Khalik Sherrif, eMedia Investments CEO, in his CEO report in the 2020 eMedia Holdings annual report, told investors that "by October 2020 the group will launch its own over-the-top (OTT) offering called Openview Plus".

That was the first time that e.tv confirmed that it was working on a video streaming service, and the first time it got a name: Openview+. By May this year eMedia had decided to change the name from Openview+ to eVOD after it had to push out and missed the planned launch date of October 2020.

In its annual financial results for the year that ended 31 March 2021, released in May, eMedia now said that "The new financial year will also see the launch of the group's over-the-top (OTT) service eVOD in July 2021".

TVwithThinus asked Khalik Sherrif about the name change from Openview Plus to eVOD during the virtual Q&A session that e.tv held last week for eVOD.

"Openview remains Openview. Openview is our service of almost 20 channels that's part of our free direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV service. Nothing happens to Openview, it doesn't change its name".

"Openview is the biggest thing to happen in free television in South Africa - we have 2.5 million households in South Africa and growing with a reach of more than 45 000 a month. Openview has some of the best channels in the country - the leading channels on satellite TV come from Openview - eExtra, eMovies."

"This is DTH on satellite. This is a new totally new business. It's not a name change, it's a game change. It's eVOD. This is OTT. This it the eMedia group coming to you on analogue, DTH, DTT and now on OTT. So Openview and eVOD are very separate businesses."

"We think that today Openview is flying but that in a few years eVOD will be our number one," Khalik Sherrif said. 

ALSO READ: e.tv launches its eVOD video streaming service.

ALSO READ: e.tv to launch its video streamer eVOD in July.

ALSO READ: eMedia Investments to launch Openview Plus as streaming service, Openview Connect as a new broadband internet service.

e.tv to launch its video streamer eVOD in July, Openview now seen in 2.36 million homes.

by Thinus Ferreira

e.tv plans to finally launch it's own video streaming service eVOD in July this year with the service that has now undergone a name change after it missed its planned launch date in October 2020 of what it originally planned to call Openview Plus.

If eMedia manages to launch eVOD in July it will pip the South African public broadcaster to the post that is also furiously working on its own video streamer that will work similarly to the BBC's iPlayer and that the SABC plans to launch before the end of this year.

On Thursday eMedia Holdings released its annual financial results for the year that ended 31 March 2021 and said that "The new financial year will also see the launch of the group's over-the-top (OTT) service eVOD in July 2021".

eMedia didn't specify any eVOD pricing or reveal any further details about its planned video streaming service and whether it would be a using a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) model where users will have to pay to watch, or if it will go the advertiser-funded "freemium" route.

eMedia said that South Africa's "television market is facing numerous technology and viewership challenges which will require the group to continually assess its strategic alternatives".

eMedia recently launched its Openview Connect dongle as a new broadband internet service - something that will help to carry and funnel eVOD as a content service into viewers' internet connected homes. 

eVOD will join and compete with a crowded space of VOD services available in South Africa including Netflix, MultiChoice's Showmax, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Acorn, Vodacom's Video Play, Telkom ONE, VIU and a few smaller services.

Some international services like Disney's Disney+, WarnerMedia's HBO Max, Discovery Inc.'s Discovery+ and ViacomCBS Networks' Paramount+ haven't yet launched in South Africa, with BritBox, the joint 50/50 streaming venture between BBC Studios and ITV, that plans to launch in the country later this year.

eMedia originally planned to call its video streaming service Openview Plus as a content extension of its existing free-to-air, direct-to-home (DTH) satellite-TV service. Khalik Sherrif, eMedia Investments CEO, said in a CEO report in September 2020 that "by October 2020 the group will launch its own over-the-top (OTT) offering called Openview Plus".

Speaking about Openview, eMedia said that it is "looking to launch a few more channels on the

Openview platform in the new financial year". 

According to the company Openview set-top box activations continue to grow at an average of 35 000 per month. At the end of March 2021 a total of 2 361 443 decoders have been activated, compared to 1 992 844 a year ago.

eMedia said that its spending on content costs for Openview, including its e.tv multichannel business, increased from R366.9 million to R308.7 million the previous year and that "The increase is attributable to the additional sports on the news and sports channel as well as the addition of the Afrikaans block on eExtra".

eMedia however dropped and ended the subsidy on Openview decoders that it used to offer to help drive sales, something that helped to decrease Openview's operating expenses by 7%.

The group’s television advertising revenue is approximately 8% better than the market and said that this can be attributed to the increased prime time market share from 24.6% in March 2020 to 29.6% in March 2021 - an increase of 20.33%.

About its TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) that it provides to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, eMedia said that although eNCA "is not offered on all DStv bouquets yet it was be the most watched 24-hour news channel in the country among LSM8 to LSM10 and was the most watched news channel among all adults as well at the end of March 2021".

"Through the pandemic eNCA has achieved its advertising revenue targets while its costs were being well maintained."

ALSO READ: eMedia Investments to launch Openview Plus as streaming service, Openview Connect as a new broadband internet service.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 29 October 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ Some of the responses to the scandal swirling around the cheater SABC3 Expresso presenter Katlego Maboe and Outsurance frontman shows that attitudes over abuse in South Africa need to change. (subscription required)

■ No sign yet of the GoBinge sit-down interview that the YouTube channel teased days ago with Monique Muller claiming that she endured physical abuse from Katlego Maboe.

■ SABC3's Trending SA show finally addresses the issue after days; Frames it as Katlego Maboe's "private life" although it is his private life, hotel sex cheating with another woman and allegations of a STD, that were made part of public life on social media.

- Katlego Maboe fans who are fine with the swirling abuse and cheating claims around the presenter, attack SABC3's Expresso on Facebook.

- Katlego Maboe becomes a meme using his infamous gown-wearing admission that he's a cheater.

■ Sylvia Tladi, SABC TV Licence fees boss, admits that under new plan where people will be forced to pay a licence fee even if they only watch Netflix SA or MultiChoice DStv consumers won't be getting value for money.

■ Zoom: A naked man shows up on Canada's morning TV.

- And another full frontal "wardrobe malfunction" with Joel Dommett on ITV in Britain.

■ The dark, distorted world of Nicole Kidman's new TV murder mystery The Undoing that will be on M-Net (DStv 101).

■ Ellen DeGeneres, seen on VUZU (DStv 116) but getting axed there soon, lost more followers in 2020 than any other celebrity because of her talk show scandal.

- Wendy Williams unmasked as Lips in The Masked Singer.

■ The overstaffed and overburdened SABC with a monstrous wage bill and dreary programming is a broadcaster that is very hard to like.

■ eMedia Investments refuses to talk about it but e.tv has upgraded its Openview decoders that have a WiFi hotspot option and functionality now - very likely in anticipation of the launch of its Openview Plus streaming service.

■ America's TV news and its plans for 2020 election night coverage.

■ The blessing of the Chinese censors? China's state-run CCTV shows a portrait of the Prophet Muhammad in a TV series.

South Africa's SABC plans to launch its own video streaming service in 2021, streamer will mimic Britain's BBC iPlayer.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's public broadcaster plans to launch its own SABC video-on-demand streaming service in 2021 with the SABC video streamer that will look and function in the same way as Britain's BBC iPlayer. 

The SABC's plan to roll out its own bespoke entertainment VOD streamer comes at the same time as the country's ANC-led government and the financially struggling broadcaster are crafting controversial plans and possible legislation changes to try and force private pay-TV companies and subscription video-on-demand services to pay the SABC through harvesting their customer databases to tack on compulsory SABC TV Licence fees.

What is means is that the SABC and the government want to amend the existing legislation so that the South African Broadcasting Corporation will get paid money from the likes of DStv and Netflix South Africa at the same time that the SABC might be running its own video streaming service.

Only about a third of South African TV households still bother to pay their annual SABC TV Licence fee of R265 with the beleaguered SABC that is owed billions over many years in outstanding licencing fees.

Besides millions of viewers who have abandoned the SABC, a growing number of video viewers have shifted to digital platforms where they don't watch or listen to any SABC content.

These digital content consumers watch YouTube or are subscribing and using the offerings of pay-TV services like MultiChoice (DStv) and China's StarTimes (StarSat) - as well as the flurry of international and local companies providing subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Vodacom's Video Play, Apple TV+, VIU, Showmax and others - using laptops and mobile devices and gadgets like tablets.

The SABC and the country's department of communications and digital technologies want to broaden the definition of the existing SABC TV Licence so that consumers who are for instance watching Netflix SA on a tablet, DStv on a laptop, or StarSat through the StarTimesON app on a cellphone, all have to pay a SABC TV Licence although they don't use or consumer SABC content.

With even more local and international SVOD service that might launch in South Africa in future like The Walt Disney Company's Disney+ or Star, Discovery Inc.'s discovery+, ViacomCBS' Paramount+, WarnerMedia's HBO Max and others, a compulsory, tacked on SABC TV Licence fee to subscribers' monthly bill will mean a multi-million rand revenue boost for the SABC's cash-strapped Auckland Park kitty.

eMedia Investments that runs South Africa's commercial free-to-air e.tv channel and a collection of e.tv-packaged channels on its Openview free-to-air satellite service also plans to launch its own Openview Plus video streaming service soon. It's unclear whether e.tv would have to "help" collect SABC TV Licence fees.

SABC streamer to mimic the BBC iPlayer

While details around the SABC's planned video streaming service is still sketchy, the streaming service will mimic the BBC iPlayer and work in the same way as the SABC's recently-launched SABC News app. 

The SABC currently provides some of its locally-produced entertainment content on MultiChoice DStv Catch Up service, licenses some series to VIU, and places some of it on YouTube. 

With its own "SABC iPlayer" the public broadcaster will be able to bundle most of its own content on its own platform, where a limited volume of entertainment content will be freely accessible and with the bulk of its library catalogue and new entertainment content that will only be accessible after registration and login, for instance by entering a valid SABC TV Licence number.

"The SABC can confirm that it is planning to launch its video and audio streaming services in line with the ever-changing industry trends and consumer needs," Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson confirmed to TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry.

"At this stage the SABC is not in a position to provide more detail, due to the commercial sensitivity of the information," she said.

The SABC says that it plans to launch its own SABC video streamer in 2021, and said that the broadcaster sees the launch of its own bespoke video streaming service as crucial and necessary because of reasons including competitive advantage, responding to industry needs, fulfilling the role of being a content aggregator and being a platform operator.

ALSO READ: South Africa's SABC now wants DStv and Netflix viewers as well as mobile device users to pay a SABC TV Licence.

eMedia Investments to launch Openview Plus as streaming service, Openview Connect as a new broadband internet service.

by Thinus Ferreira

Seven years since it launched as a free-to-air service, e.tv now plans to extend its Openview satellite-TV service and to launch Openview Plus in October this year as a video streaming service in South Africa, as well Openview Connect within a few months as a new internet broadband service for consumers.

Openview Plus will carry eMedia's Openview channels and content as a direct-to-consumer offering funneled through the internet, and will very likely be available as a bundled-offer together with Openview Connect that eMedia plans to launch as a new broadband connection service.

No specific launch date for Openview Plus is known, nor pricing, but eMedia Investments wants to expand and augment its existing Openview satellite-TV footprint as soon as possible into the streaming service arena where it will compete with the likes of MultiChoice's Showmax, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Vodacom's Video Play and some smaller services like VIU that are all available in South Africa.

After launching Openview in 2013, eMedia and e.tv now want to get into and carve out a space in the still small but rapidly growing video streaming consumer market in South Africa, before the already overcrowded market becomes even more congested with offerings.

Several others international streamers like ViacomCBS Networks' Paramount+, Disney's Disney+, and WarnerMedia's HBO Max are not yet available in South Africa but are likely to launch and join the OTT fold in time.

While South Africa's public broadcaster hasn't launched an OTT service for the SABC but likely will in future similar to the BBC's iPlayer, MultiChoice just launched Showmax Pro as an upsell-offering that bundles Showmax with SuperSport content, and plans to offer streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video on its new DStv Explora Ultra decoder.

Khalik Sherrif, eMedia Investments CEO, says in his CEO report in the latest 2020 eMedia Holdings annual report that "by October 2020 the group will launch its own over-the-top (OTT) offering called Openview Plus".

According to Khalik Sherrif, "Work on this offering is happening in earnest as this report is published".

The Openview satellite-TV service that is now available in 2 million TV households across Southern Africa carries self-packaged channels besides e.tv like eExtra, eMovies, eMovies Extra, eToonz, eReality, eRewind and eAfrica with channel carriage agreements for some of channels that are also available on the platforms of pay-TV operators like DStv and StarSat as the South African branded affiliate of China's StarTimes.

Some e.tv content are also licensed to the VIU streaming service which will become a direct rival for Openview Plus, and it's not clear how launching Openview Plus might affect that content availability, with eMedia that might elect to keep its premium locally-produced soaps and series for itself.

It's also not clear whether Openview Plus will be a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) model where users will have to pay to watch, or if it will go the advertiser-funded "freemium" route of NBCUniversal's just-launched Peacock streaming service in America where consumers have to watch a number of adverts per hour.

About its plans to launch Openview Connect as a new broadband internet service - a utility service that will help to carry and funnel its Openview Plus as a content service - Khalik Sherrif says it will expand eMedia's technology offering and target South African households that don't have internet fibre connections yet.

"Openview Connect will be an advancement in the technology-based offerings of the group. Openview Connect is set to launch in the next few months," says Khalik Sherrif. "The target market
for this offering is homes in South Africa that have no access to fibre as yet."

On Monday TVwithThinus asked eMedia in a media enquiry to please shed some more light on Openview Plus, what it is and will entail, confirmation of the October launch date, whether it will duplicate and mirror the existing satellite-TV Openview, and what it might offer additionally.

eMedia's marketing and publicity executives didn't respond with any answers.