GONE, THEN BACK: TopTV yanks RTPi because of 'low viewership'; then brings it back because it 'is a very popular channel'.

There's more completely incoherent double-speak from pay TV operator TopTV which first said it was yanking the Portuguese TV channel RTPi because of "low viewership" (TopTV's words, not mine) on 30 June, just to suddenly return the channel last week because it "is a very popular channel" (TopTV's words, not mine).

TopTv originally said RTPi is removed and that a replacement channel is being sought. What happened to that work? Or did it never really even start? Why would what is first publicly devalued by TopTV, inexplicably be returned by TopTV as if it now suddenly has value? It makes very little sense.

"This was a business decision made after careful consideration due to the low viewership of the channel," said TopTV when RTPi was dropped on 30 June.

Two weeks later - this past Friday - TopTV suddenly issued a press statement saying: "We have reconsidered our initial decision and are pleased to announce that we will continue broadcasting the channel [RTPi] as from today, 13 July," quoting Ian Woodrow, the general manager of channels at TopTV.

Was dropping RTPi then a bad business decision? Was it a hasty, uneducated, unresearched business decision made on a whim? Or how is a channel removed, a replacement promised, and then the removed channel suddenly returns less than two weeks later?

Would a hospital suddenly close a wing and two weeks later reopen it? Would a supermarket remove a product which is not selling from it shelves and suddenly two weeks put it back? Would Volkswagen stop manufacturing the Citi Golf and suddenly two weeks later start pushing them off the factory line again? No. But this type of operational schizophrenia is what TopTV just did (again?).

What does it mean in a broader sense if TopTV as a pay TV operator executes what it calls a business decision with such far-reaching consequences, and then suddenly weeks later, changes back? Is there any kind of long term planning and content vision, any real content value appreciation and stategic business model and plan at work here - or are decisions simply made willy-nilly on the cuff?

For that is how it comes across to outsiders looking inward to the company.

BREAKING. RTPi removed from TopTV after Portuguese TV channel fails to sustain a TV audience; TopTV looking for a replacement channel.

The Portuguese TV channel, RTP Internacional or RTPi, was taken off of TopTV, and On Digital Media (ODM) tells me the South African pay TV operator is looking for a replacement channel.


RTPi was yanked over the weekend and discontinued on TopTV's channel line-up at midnight on Saturday 30 June. TopTV says viewership of this international Portuguese TV channel of Portugal's public broadcaster had too low viewership.


"The carriage of RTPi, the Portuguese channel on the TopTV platform, was discontinued on midnight Saturday 30 June," says TopTV. "This was a business decision made after careful consideration due to the low viewership of the channel. We are in the process of finding a replacement channel as soon as possible."