BREAKING. SouthTel silent on VOD:TV; suddenly no longer talking about its promised VOD:TV video-on-demand service.

SouthTel has gone silent, unwilling to talk about its big promises for what the company said would be South Africa's first true video-on-demand (VOD) service.

Several months after SouthTel said it would start its new VOD:TV service with HD content, and wowing TV executives in November last year with the double sided VOD:TV remote control, industry insiders are now starting to wonder: Is SouthTel and VOD:TV another pipedream like WowTV, Super 5 Media, eSat and all the other pay TV businesses over promising and then never starting?

SouthTel promised TV executives an early 2012 launch but with June 2012 fast approaching, SouthTel has made no mention of the intended new launch date for VOD:TV which was tested in 2011 with 70 decoders and which SouthTel said would give South African TV viewers 200 hours of HD viewable content per month (or 400 hours of SD content) on its PVR decoder.

MultiChoice currently offers the DStv on Demand and DStv Box Office VOD service to DStv Premium subscribers. Although good and growing its not a "perfect system" in the sense that its not a true return-path PVR system.

SouthTel said that its revolutionary video-on-demand service would come with a 3G card to enable a true return-path and make true interactive VOD television possible for the first time in Africa. Now SouthTel doesn't want to talk about where the business is at and how and why the roll-out plans for VOD:TV has changed.

Neither SouthTel nor CEO Oscar Dube had any comment on questions and media enquiries made last week about VOD:TV's proposed launch date, when the service will be rolled out commercially and why it has been postponed, or what the latest is that SouthTel can say about VOD:TV.

Asked if SouthTel has anything to share or tell about VOD:TV in general, SouthTel cited "non-disclosure" issues.

BREAKING. SouthTel promises no porn on demand to subscribers when its video-on-demand service VOD:TV launches in 2012.

You're reading it here first.

SouthTel tells TV with Thinus that the new video-on-demand entrant planning to launch its VOD:TV service early in 2012 in South Africa will not be pumping porn to subscribers.

CEO Oscar Dube tells me that SouthTel has no plans ''to showcase adult content, for example porn''.

TopTV concluded a carriage agreement with Playboy TV for 3 hardcore pornography channels and TopTV has applied to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) for channel authorisation to start this separate new porn package for subscribers from 2012.

SouthTel is ready to launch its VOD service in 2012 with 200 hours of high definition (HD) content and 400 hours of SD content and will join MultiChoice that's currently offering the DStv BoxOffice VOD service within South Africa.

AfricaCast 2011: SouthTel ready to launch Africa's first true return-path, video-on-demand service with VOD:TV; 200 hours of HD content.

SouthTel is ready to launch VOD:TV in South Africa in 2012 and elsewhere in Southern Africa with more than 200 hours of high definition (HD) content per month (400 SD hours) and Africa's first true return-path enabled video-on-demand (VOD) service that includes a double-sided remote control with a full keyboard at the back.

SouthTel has thrown down the gauntlet and says the company is looking for mobile operators across Southern Africa who possibly wants to partner with the company in bringing video-on-demand (VOD) to consumers.

SouthTel has a fully-functional and tested VOD system, with international content deals signed and in place, as well as a secure conditional access system. SouthTel plans to roll out its VOD:TV service in South Africa early in 2012 but says its ready to immediately expands beyond South Africa's borders.

''We will also easily be able to customise the user-interface of VOD:TV from country to country,'' said Oscar Dube, SouthTel CEO and founder. He was speaking at the AfricaCast 2011 TV summit in Cape Town which is part of the 14th AfricaCom conference. He said SouthTel will partner with mobile operators as the PVR decoder for VOD:TV comes with a 3G card to enable a true return-path and make true interactive VOD television possible for the first time in Africa.

''If you look at pay TV in South Africa and the rest of Africa, they don't really have a true return path way to communicate with subscribers. VOD:TV will. You don't buy packages, you consume content as you want to by using airtime while video and audio is pushed to the set top box (STB).''

''I really want to invite mobile operators across Africa to come and talk to us. The product is immediately available. It's not something we're still working on it's something that we can talk about with mobile operators right now. There's no need for broadband, we don't need any mobile operator's infrastructure – we have our own infrastructure, so mobile operators don't have to spend any cash on capital expenditure or operational expenditure,'' Oscar Dube said.

''The VOD:TV service will offer 400 hours of standard definition (SD) content per month, or 200 hours of high definition (HD) content per month. We're looking at doing about 200 hours of HD content. Content will also be specifically customised per country. We're not saying that because you're in Zimbabwe or Botswana you have to watch the content we will be having for South Africa. We, together with mobile operators, will be able to completely customise for your country and your subscriber base's needs.''

''We tested VOD:TV with 70 decoders; we tested with regional specific advertising for provinces. Together with SouthTel, mobile operators will be able to enter the video content market. SouthTel is at the forefront of the mindset shift for Africa that you have to move away from traditional linear television, to more on-demand TV content which is transactional based – viewers watching the content that they want, when they want to.'' He said SouthTel is ''looking for partnerships with broadcasters and telecoms because in every country we're looking for local content.''

The conditional access system SouthTel's VOD:TV decoders will be using is Safe Access which is proprietary to Logiways. I asked Rick Smith, the senior vice president, sales and marketing of Logiways in France about the security system.

''It's certified, approved by the Hollywood studios, it's deployed currently in Europe for Hollywood content, and it will work in exactly the same way with SouthTel's VOD:TV platform here in Africa,'' Rick Smith said. ''We secure the content from end to end from the ingestion right through to the consumer consumption. The conditional access system is specifically designed, unlike linear systems, to protect content whilst it reside on a STB right up until the time it is deleted.''

SouthTel postpones its September launch date for its video-on-demand (VOD) service VOD.TV; continuing with its field trial with MTN.

Two weeks ago I asked SouthTel and SouthTel CEO Oscar Dube for an update regarding the company's new video-on-demand (VOD) service called VOD.TV that the company envisioned launching from September in South Africa - but that date has now been pushed back indefinitely while SouthTel's field trial with MTN is continuing.

Oscar Dube told TV with Thinus that SouthTel ''watched closely and we hope not to go through similar setbacks'' when I asked what SouthTel made of MultiChoice's DStv BoxOffice VOD service which experienced a technical core failure  when it launched commercially on 22 July.

ALSO READ: SouthTel to launch a trial version of its brand-new VOD.TV video-on-demand service in August.

Although Oscar Dube didn't tell me, I can reveal that SouthTel is in partnership with MTN and is currently running a field trial with the cellphone operator. The pilot study that SouthTel is conducting to test the VOD.TV service consists of 80 decoders - half of which has already been installed - to an ''exclusive user group around the country''.

''Our focus is on the pilot for now and we will announce the launch date in due course,'' Oscar Dube told me last Monday. He wasn't yet willing to announce a commercial price structure.

''Our product and service offering is different from any that you have seen in Africa. We've been piloting it since 1 August. Our focus is to showcase different ways of delivering content and to bridge the gap with first world countries.''

BREAKING. SouthTel to launch first true video-on-demand service in South Africa with VOD:TV decoders in September.

SouthTel is planning on bringing TV viewers in South Africa and Southern Africa the first true video-on-demand (VOD) pay TV service from September when SouthTel will launch its VOD:TV decoders and VOD service giving TV viewers the choice to watch thousands of movies and TV series on demand before it appears on pay television.

''TV viewers will have to buy a VOD:TV branded decoder and pay for the installation. And of course the subscriber will have to pay for the specific movie or TV show,'' Oscar Dube, CEO and founder of SouthTel tells TV with Thinus, but promises that SouthTel's video-on-demand service ''will definitely be cheaper than pay TV''.

''We're looking at minimum cost. The specific pricing has not been decided but it will be cheaper than what people are currently paying for subscription television in South Africa.'' SouthTel's VOD:TV will launch through satellite in September in South Africa and 3 other Sadec countries in Southern Africa but the company will move to employ broadband in the future.

SouthTel's VOD:TV service plans to show the latest Hollywood movies and episodes of TV shows before it appears on MultiChoice's DStv, on pay broadcaster M-Net, or On Digital Media's (ODM) TopTV. It would also be possible for VOD:TV users to order a whole season of a TV series. ''The process is always first the movie theatre, then VOD, then DVD, then pay TV, then free-to-air. So SouthTel's VOD:TV will make movies available in the window right after the theatrical run, and just before pay TV,'' says Oscar Dube.

Asked what subscribers of VOD:TV will be able to order on demand, he says ''it will be most of the movies you would be able to see as if you've gone to the movie theatre. We've got access to basically whatever you would find in the video store.''

Oscar Dube says SouthTel has been working the past 2 years on launching the VOD:TV service. ''The biggest difficulty was the VOD:TV decoder. ''The various Hollywood studios all have to personally approve a decoder for video-on-demand services before they would allow any content to go through it. They're incredibly concerned about piracy and secirity issues, so they have to make sure decoders and distribution systems are security and piracy proof.''

SouthTel didn't deal with specific Hollywood studios to get movie and TV show rights for its VOD:TV service but is making use of a content management company that specialize in collectively securing access and video-on-demand rights. ''Instead of us [SouthTel] going to each and every one of the studios we're using a contents management company that collectively does that work and compile the content,'' says Oscar Dube. ''Viewers will be able to watch movies or purchase a season of a TV show to watch for a period of time.''

''Video-on-demand is the future,'' says Oscar Dube. ''The VOD:TV decoder will actually also give subscribers access to terrestrial television channels as well as the internet. You will get internet on TV. The VOD:TV decoder will come with a 3G internet dongle. VOD:TV will also make location based, targeted advertising possible. For the first time ever in South Africa targeted advertising will be possible on television. A local florist in a specific area would be able to run a trailer before a movie.''

M-Net - the past 25 years the first chance pay TV subscribers had of seeing movies after their theatrical run - did not immediately respond to media enquiries made this morning.

MultiChoice that's been testing its own VOD on television service with the working title of Box Office which I wrote about in September RIGHT HERE according to sources, very quickly responded to media enquiries this morning.
''MultiChoice welcomes competition in the pay TV market. We believe competition is good for the industry and for viewer choice,'' says MultiChoice. ''In terms of our own VOD services, MultiChoice is planning a number of exciting new initiatives this year. Watch the space!''