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."

eNCA group head of news Patrick Controy on new eNCA website: 'Our news site is essentially one that you will watch as much as you will read.'

The new eNCA website at www.enca.com which the South African 24-hour TV news channel launched last week on Tuesday is a news site which the news channel created for people to watch as much as they will visit it to read the news.

"One thing that was really concerning to us, was that we knew that if we're going to play in the online space, we would need better broadband in South Africa because our news site would essentially be one that you would watch as much as you will read - video being our key thing," said Patrick Conroy on the eNCA in an interview about the new website.

"We were very concerned that if we were to launch something when there wasn't sufficient broadband, that it would just be an exercise in frustration for the user. So we held back until the environment changed. And I think we've now reached that point."

"We don't want the website to be a separate entity. It's part of who we are. It's part of what we do. If you go through the list of staff on the online team, it's actually 50% TV people. The integration is very right between making sure that the TV operations and the online operations work together," said Patrick Conroy.

"It should be a seamless thing. If you've missed something on air, it will be on the website. If you're not watching us on screen, or you can second-screen, catch us on your mobile phone or on your computer at work," said Patrick Conroy.

Tim Spira, the general manager for the eNews online division, appeared on Maggs on Media on Sunday, the eNCA's weekly media current affairs show with Jeremy Maggs, to talk about the new eNCA news website.

"We always knew it was going to be a video-rich experience and the broadband penetration just really hadn't been there until now and that's now beginning to change," said Tim Spira.

He said the website faces unique challenges within South African, with the new eNCA news website being launched by a news broadcaster as opposed to a newspaper.

"We had to figure out a whole lot of things, like how do you get the video onto the computer screen, or onto a mobile screen. How do you make sure that it's optimised for an individual, their device, their bandwidth. And then also how do we serve up our content."

Charlotte Kilbane, the online editor of the eNews online division said that the future is the internet and the web "and yes the future is integrated and we're hoping that we can be the future of that in South Africa".

In terms of the layout and design and look of the new eNCA news site, Charlotte Kilbane said that the developing team took "some of their cues from television. I'm been a television person for several years now,  and a lot of the people within the team come from the television part of this business as well."

"So we've tried to make it vibrant, very visual and a bit of movement as well. A lot of sites you see is like a newspaper put on screen, and we're the opposite of that," she said.

BREAKING. eNCA launching its news rich website with rolling news coverage in the form of text stories, video and presenters' blogs.

Similar to CNN, the BBC and Sky News, the South African 24-hour TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) will tomorrow launch an integrated news website at www.enca.com with rolling news coverage including video and text stories, complete with interactive blogs from eNCA personalities such as Derek van Dam, Justice Malala, Debora Patta and Eleni Giokos.

The eNCA says viewers will be able to catch up on any current affairs programming they may have missed on TV through the on-demand video offering which will be available on www.enca.com.

The eNCA online expansion follows the free-to-air broadcaster e.tv's rapid video growth as the broadcaster plans to make a lot of its TV content available on line within months as it builds capacity to stream content over the internet.

The eNCA.com site dabbled the past few month with video clips from news stories, a schedule and other information as a beta tester while an online team was working on moulding and creating a better news rich version which will become available from Wednesday.

The enca.com website run by a specialised online editorial team will carry extensive video content and will be divided into various categories such as news, weather, sports, business and lifestyle news.

"We now have a complete news offering," says Patrick Conroy, the group head of news. "[We] now have a compelling online and mobile offering. Previously broadband constraints prevented us from delivering a video-rich web experience, but South Africa is catching up quickly."

The enca.com content will be available on cellphones, iPads and tablet PCs.

"We approached the site from a visual perspective and have created a truly multimedia experience with extensive video content as well as text and image stories," says Timothy Spira, the eNCA online division general manager. He says enca.com will give viewers "an enhanced experience and richer context to each story".

"eNCA.com will offer news from a different angle. Viewers will now have access to trusted and easily accessible content at their fingertips, presented in a style that is fully integrated with the broadcast product."