The Lebashe Investment Group buys Tiso Blackstar including TV channels like the Home Channel, Ignition and Business Day TV for R1.05 billion.

The Lebashe Investment Group has acquired the media, broadcasting and content group, Tiso Blackstar Holdings for R1.05 billion.

The sale includes its stable of TV channels under its Blackstar TV division like The Home Channel (DStv 176), Ignition (DStv 189) and Business Day TV (DStv 412) that are available on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, as well as its TV production division, Ochre, making TV content for various channels.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals but should become commercially effective by 30 November 2019.

Besides its TV channel assets, Tiso Blackstar with a presence in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya owns newspapers like The Sunday Times, Business Day and Financial Mail.

Tshepo Mahloele, Lebashe Investment chairperson, says in a statement "We believe that Lebashe provides a compelling growth opportunity for the media, broadcasting and content businesses in the Tiso Blackstar stable".

"Our combination of specialist Pan-African expertise, technological and financial acumen, make us the ideal partner to take this business to the next level."

"As long-term investors, we are quite excited about this transaction which complements our current portfolio and growth trajectory. We anticipate that our newly acquired media assets will play a critical role in our ambition to create a significant investment company on the continent."

"Whilst the media industry, in general, is undergoing disruption, we believe that the assets we are acquiring are generating sustainable revenues to withstand the change in the medium term."

"Moreover, we are acquiring leading brands supported by a good team. It is our plan to support the editorial team with an advisory council made up of eminent local and international persons. Our long-term approach to investing will also enable us to focus on the growth of quality journalism which should add to the positive experience of our customers and the country in general," said Tshepo Mahloele.

"We look forward to working with the management team to take the business to the next level in this highly competitive media landscape. We are cognisant of the fact that we are acquiring mature, but quality media assets with a rich heritage built on the back of quality journalism supported by discerning and loyal readers."

"We plan to maintain and enhance the distinctive value proposition offered by these various platforms to the readers and advertisers, as we explore new growth areas for the business including creating a Pan-African wide media platform using technology as an enabler."

 Andrew Bonamour, Tiso Blackstar CEO, says "This is a perfect opportunity for a new owner to take it to greater heights".

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.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 15 October 2015

■ Complete news round-up of the SABC's ongoing Hlaudi Motsoeneng court circus.
From Hlaudi Motsoeneng's lawyer accusing the judge of racism, to Hlaudi Motsoeneng wanting his disciplinary hearing broadcast on live television in South Africa, to the court hearing the SABC thinks Hlaudi Motsoeneng is "the best thing since sliced bread".

■ MultiChoice's DStv commercial with Suits' Gabriel Macht on M-Net is a failure.
Why did DStv bastardise Harvey Specter? As the DStv brand ambassador the DStv advert leaves viewers "unwowed and unmoved" and the DStv ad's copy is "stiff and pedestrian", awkwardly overstyled as DStv failed and took Gabriel Macht as a favourite TV star and turned him into an advertising puppet.

■ MultiChoice Africa fires DStv marketing and sales executives over theft.
In Uganda, DStv's marketing manager Brian Muwonge and sales manager Jude Kalema have been fired over misappropriation and stealing money using it for private business and sex.

■ ITV's new Jekyll and Hyde will be Downton Abbey with monsters.
The new British drama series of course grabbed quickly by ShowMax for South African viewers.

■ DStv iRock Festival in Polokwane apparently a disaster for the press
Almost none of the journalists who went wrote anything; now this shocking report weeks later about leaving late, an extremely boring pre-party like "a shebeen in Hillbrow", having to leave one hotel for a "horrible, horrible, horrible" other hotel.
Then there was the bad food problems; and those big green flies...

■ The new Victoria's Secret Fashion Show coming to e.tv.
Will be broadcast on 19 December and this year Rihanna, The Weeknd and Selena Gomez are performing.

■ Video-on-demand (VOD) service VIDI is struggling
VIDI suffering from poor South African uptake and VIDI is struggling to gain traction in the market, and now investment partner Tiso Blackstar is dumping the unsuccessful VIDI which will try to re-engineer the business.

■ South Africa's digital terrestrial television (DTT) encryption battle is about to get even nastier.
The "fight of the decade" is on in the battle over South Africa's DTT.

■ Comatosed Lamar Odom who's organs are shutting down in hospital is not being filmed.
The Keeping Up with the Kardashians cameras are not rolling for E! Entertainment (DStv 124) at Sunrise Hospital because the reality family now wants privacy. They did film the drama as they all prepared and got ready to go to hospital.

■ America's Next Top Model cancelled after 12 years.
The Tyra Banks show failed after it went from industry competition to branding pageant.

Tiso Blackstar Group takes full ownership of the Times Media Group; acquires 22.9% stake in Kagiso Tiso Holdings.

Tiso Blackstar Group SE, renamed from Blackstar Group SE from today, has taken over the Times Media Group (TMG) with full ownership of the South African media, publication and TV company.

The full ownership now gives Tiso Blackstar, listen on London's AIM and Johannesburg's Altx market full control over the Times Media Group which includes newspapers like The Sunday Times of South Africa, Sowetan, The Times, Financial Mail and Business Day and some radio stations.

The Times Media Group's (previously Avusa) TV assets include TV channels like Business Day TV (DStv 412) and The Home Channel (DStv 176) on MultiChoice's DStv, production company Ochre Media, various TV stations elsewhere in Africa like Ghana and Kenya, as well  as the video-on-demand (VOD) service VIDI which launched in late 2014.

Tiso Blackstar also acquired a 22.9% equity stake in Kagiso Tiso Holdings (KTH), one of South Africa's large black-controlled investment companies.

KTH holds Kagiso Media, which has several radio stations and the Glow TV channel (DStv 167 / OVHD 108) available on DStv and Platco Digital's OpenView HD.

Andrew Bonamour is the CEO of Tiso Blackstar Group.

"Tiso Blackstar brings together many of sub-Saharan Africa's most exciting media businesses into one group," says Andrew Bonamour.

"The digital and mobile opportunities in these markets are only just beginning, and we have the talented people, relationships and experience to make the most of them.