TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Gebroke Harte: Why everyone is a loser in the e.tv DStv TV channels war.

by Thinus Ferreira

There's a loss of innocence and a sadness hardly ever spoken about, publicly acknowledged properly, or given due importance when it happens but chances are you've endured it several times already since you've been a toddler - and will likely some more as you age: The sudden end of a TV show and story you've been watching faithfully, or a go-to TV channel you've loved, suddenly ripped away. 

It's horrible when it happens because the feelings and questions are always the same and remain for long afterwards; when people and stories you've watched and who feel like friends, are just gone: Why did they have to leave? What happened to a proper goodbye? Who decided this?

In June South African TV viewers lost again when another 5 broad, general entertainment TV channels disappeared from their DStv channel line-up: A+E Networks' Lifetime, as well as eMedia's channels like eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and the kids channel eToonz. 

The Muslim religion channel ITV was also gone by mid-June from DStv.

It means no more Little Women and Ms Juicy, no more Postman Pat; no more of e.tv's dubbed Turkish telenovelas like the hugely popular Gebroke Harte. 

As traditional linear satellite television services the world over struggle to keep the value proposition of their legacy bundling of TV channels going as it is constantly unravelling and getting diluted, it's more important than ever for traditional pay-TV operators and TV channel suppliers to work together to keep the TV pool as full as possible for as long as possible.

As more and more linear TV channels lose shows and content which are jumping to video-on-demand (VOD) streaming, as more and more linear TV channels simply shut down, and as more and more new prestige TV shows are made directly for streamers and no longer for studios' own linear TV channels, it is in everyone's interest to collective work together to protect what's left of the traditional direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV ecosystem.

Everyone once again became a loser a little bit more when e.tv's TV channels disappeared on 31 May from DStv: MultiChoice, eMedia, South Africa's TV industry and most importantly, the South African TV viewer.

It was and is in both eMedia and MultiChoice's best interest to work together and to keep linear TV channels that still exist, like eExtra, on something like DStv. 

While it seems like South Africa and the world are still filled with hundreds of traditional linear TV channels, the truth is that the TV channels you've been watching are becoming an endangered species.

When and as traditional TV channels - whether packaged in South Africa, or acquired internationally like America - start to dry up one by one over time, like A+E Networks' Lifetime which became the latest one lost as the TV content licensing business is rapidly changing, the traditional satellite pay-TV bundle is edging closer and closer to collapse.

What happens the day when a TV viewer says: There are no longer enough linear TV channels, or not enough content on the carried linear TV channels, to make buying a traditional satellite TV bundle package worth it?

eMedia is losing out on a large number of viewers which will dent its income derived from advertising revenue. In turn, it means less money for eMedia to actually acquire programming for channels like eExtra or eMovies. It weakens, over time, the value of those channels and of a South African company trying to package and provide linear TV channels from South Africa to South Africans.

MultiChoice is losing out on average to above-average TV channels that strengthened the overall value of the DStv bundle - something that is maybe taken for granted now, but that shouldn't be under-estimated. 

The ordinary South African TV viewer is also losing out, as once again, stories and shows they've watched, just end and are no longer available to watch where and how they've started watching it. 

DStv subscribers who were introduced to the flurry of dubbed Turkish telenovelas that over the past few years became really popular on eExtra (so much so that M-Net is now also getting into the Afrikaans dubbing business of Turkish telenovelas for its kykNET & Kie channel), now have to switch to Openview if they want to continue watching a story they've already invested their time and attention in. 

Once again people are having their viewing and favourite shows abruptly cut off and taken away because companies can't get along, can't sit down and negotiate and can't come to a mutually beneficial commercial agreement for the sake of those at the bottom of the TV biz pyramid: you - the paying TV consumer. 

It's all so unnecessary.

Millions of ordinary pay-TV consumers in South Africa are not looking for the latest, made-to-win-an Emmy prestige miniseries from America. 

They want access to general, mostly-decent, run-of-the-mill content for their kids, sports on Saturdays, and telenovelas and soap during dinner time on weeknights in prime time. 

They want a bit of news. They want movies. And they watch Anaconda (again) even though they say they're tired of it - because it's scary, yet familiar and a Saturday or Sunday night ritual for the whole family like a TV-trip version of going to the amusement park. 

Perhaps you've grown up in a city and have never thought twice about a certain shop from a specific retailer simply just being available where you live - in fact, maybe even many branches. 

But think for a moment of the consumer living in a small town and ask them. They'll tell you that every single shop matters, greatly; that the mere existence, or arrival or opening of a small shop from a known retail brand "just like they have in the city" is often a cause for celebration because it's not taken for granted.

It's perhaps easy to dismiss an eToonz, or eMovies Extra or a Lifetime. After all, there are so many other kids channels, so many other movie channels, and a lifetime's worth of other TV channels to watch, right?

The almost unnoticeable danger is that the loss of every single TV channel moves the traditional linear satellite TV bundle closer and closer from a large TV city, to a small TV town - one where no one wants to go to.

The inexorable loss of linear is gradual. The Kardashians used to be on E! and now we're watching them on Disney+. 

It's time for linear TV channel suppliers like eMedia, channel and content distributors locally and internationally, and platform operators like MultiChoice to realise that the level of their collective TV content pool is precipitously dropping and to come together to slow the loss of every drop as much as possible.

If they don't start to really work together to save the linear TV bundle as we have known it, they won't just lose out. They'll lose us.

Over 70 illegally-activated Openview decoders, 203 DStv remote controls seized in Zimbabwe.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Zimbabwe police have confiscated and seized over 70 illegally-activated Openview decoders in the country and over 200 DStv remote controls, once again focusing attention on the massive and growing problem of TV content piracy in Southern Africa fuelled from out of South Africa.

While eMedia Investments continues to tout the strong growth of its Openview free-to-air satellite service, it's an open secret that some of that growth is fuelled by content starved consumers in neighbouring countries around South Africa, buying illegally-activated Openview decoders smuggled out of South Africa and watching content and TV channels like e.tv and SABC channels which are actually only licenced for viewing within South Africa.

Openview decoders are legitimately bought in South Africa, activated once, inside South Africa using South African cellphone numbers, and then taken over the borders to neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe where consumers buy the "bootleg" Openview decoders and DStv equipment from vendors who are illegally selling the already-activated equipment.

This week Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper reported that the Zimbabwe police seized 72 Openview decoders, 203 DStv remote controls, as well as 95 counterfeit DStv power units, in addition to 5 receipt books from 8 shops in Harare selling these illegally. 

Pirate viewers and pirate sellers are a growing problem for video content suppliers doing business in Africa like eMedia and MultiChoice who are seeing the value of their services damaged by pirates who get access and illegally resell what they offer.

Antonio Lee, eMedia COO, in a statement, says "Police are having success in breaking up decoder smuggling operations and arresting their local associates, who are bringing Openview decoders from South Africa into Zimbabwe, in contravention of customs, trademark and copyright laws".

"Raids and seizures are happening across the SADC region, as part of a broader piracy crackdown. Coming on the heels of the earlier busts, it shows that we are turning the tide on the illegal decoder trade and content theft."

"We are grateful to have the Zimbabwe police as our partners in this war on piracy. Anyone purchasing these products in Zimbabwe is robbing the country of customs duties and Zimbabwe's TV professionals suffer when viewers watch foreign content instead of homemade Zimbabwean shows."

eMedia's Openview adds The Home Channel+ from Arena Holdings as a spinoff home programming TV channel.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia Investment's Openview s has added The Home Channel+ from Arena Holdings to its satellite TV service on channel 113.

After it initially ran as a weekend programming block on Summit TV from May 2005, The Home Channel launched in October 2007 on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service with an growing slate of design, décor, food and home-related programming and has been available only on that platform for the past 14 years.

The Home Channel+, packaged as a spinoff channel, will now be on Openview with a lot of the same content that is and has been seen on DStv.

The Home Channel+ branded spinoff channel will show the usual favourites, as well as additional content that will be new to Openview viewers, ranging from local shows like Design for You, The Gardener, SA’s Finest Homes and the Property Game with Proverb, to international series including Grand Designs, Escape to the Country, Property Brothers: Forever Home and Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals.

"The launch of The Home Channel+ is another step in our relationship with eMedia," says Mzi Malunga, Arena Holdings CEO.

"Our content business Ochre Media makes e.tv's top-rated series Scandal! while our film distribution division Empire supplies titles to the various eMedia movie channels and their eVOD platform."

"We see free-to-air broadcast as a growing business and look forward to exploring additional opportunities together in the future."

Vernon Matzopoulos, Arena's head of broadcast, says: "“We are delighted to bring South Africa's leading lifestyle TV brand to the Openview audience. With nearly 3-million households this significantly increases our reach. We look forward to inspiring a whole new audience to create their dream home space."

May highlights on The Home Channel + include:

All About Property

Covering the local South African property market, various real estate professionals and stakeholders shed valuable insight into all forms of property dealings – from buying and selling, renting and maintenance, to finance, legalities, disputes, technology, and so much more.

Grand Designs UK

Following intrepid home-builders as they pursue their architectural dreams. Designer and writer, Kevin McCloud is on hand to witness the trials and tribulations of those willing to put everything on the line to build homes they hope will transform their lives.

Ten Minute Kitchen

It's dinner time and there are hungry mouths to feed, but you're out of ideas and you only have 10-minutes to conjure up an amazing meal. The impossible is now possible with Ten Minute Kitchen - a celebration of creative, easy, family-friendly meals that anyone can cook at home.

The Gardener

If you're looking for inspirational gardens, practical DIYs and solutions for your garden problems, then join Tanya Visser for a brand-new season of The Gardener. Whether you’re into annuals, looking to maintain the perfect lawn, want to show off with spectacular orchids or garden on a small scale, The Gardener has you covered.

e.tv channels to remain on DStv in channel carriage fight.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice will no longer remove eMedia's set of four e.tv TV channels from DStv at the end of this month with the channels that will remain available to DStv subscribers for about another two months because of a channel carriage fight between the two companies that has now spilt over to a case before the Competition Tribunal.

Channel carriage agreement fights playing out in public and acrimonious channel renewal negotiations have grown in recent years in the United States where channel operators and distributors demand more money per subscriber for successful channels during contract renewals, while pay-TV operators baulk at paying more as they try to keep costs down and yet must try to keep the offering of their overall content bouquet enticing so that subscribers don't cancel.

In contrast, channel acquisition fights have been much rarer in South Africa's pay-TV space, where international and local channel distributors and pay-TV operators have kept their cards much closer to the vest.

These channel carriage fights are likely to become and play out more publicly in South Africa in the future, similar to America, as the traditional pay-TV bundle model worldwide comes under ever-increasing pressure and pay-TV operators in Africa like MultiChoice and China's StarTimes, try to maintain a collection of TV channels in their bundled offerings while trying to keep channel carriage fees as low as possible. 

MultiChoice has now quietly removed the channel termination notices on the eMovies (DStv 138), eMovies Extra (DStv 140), eExtra (DStv 195) and eToonz (DStv 311) TV channels that were all set to go dark on DStv at the end of March 2022 after the pay-TV operator decided to not sign a channel carriage extension contract for those channels with eMedia Investments.

MultiChoice did opt to keep - under a separate agreement - the TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv (DStv 194) also from eMedia, which includes the 7-day a week eNuus Afrikaans TV news bulletin packaged by eNCA and supplied to M-Net's kykNET (DStv 144) and kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) channels.

eMedia has now gone to the Competition Tribunal, seeking to force MultiChoice to keep carrying eMovies, eMovies eExtra, eExtra and eToonz with the case that might only be concluded in two months' time at the end of May.

On Tuesday eMedia was asked why the channel termination notifications of its channels on DStv disappeared, whether these four channels will now remain on DStv, and if this is because of a new carriage agreement, a temporary agreement and if temporary, what the period is.

eMedia in response to the media query only said that eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra "will remain on DStv until further notice. We cannot give any further information at this stage". 

eMedia didn't mention that it has taken its channel carriage fight with MultiChoice to the Competition Tribunal.

MultiChoice was also asked for comment, with the company that said it opted to keep the four e.tv TV channels on DStv for the time being until the case before the Competition Tribunal has been concluded.

"MultiChoice announced on 2 March that the following eMedia channels - eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz - will no longer be available on DStv from 31 March 2022," Itumeleng Thulare, MultiChoice spokesperson told TVwithThinus.

"These channels are not part of the new channel carriage agreement to continue to carry eNCA and eNuus programming, concluded between MultiChoice and eMedia in February 2022."

"Despite negotiating and signing the new channel carriage agreement, eMedia filed an application with the Competition Tribunal on 17 March 2022 seeking an order to compel MultiChoice to continue carrying the four channels."

"In light of this development, the four channels will now remain on DStv until this matter is concluded, which we expect to be no later than 31 May 2022."

Channels door remains open

Earlier this month, TVwithThinus asked Marlon Davids, managing director of e.tv channels, if the possibility remains for MultiChoice to ever return the to-be-axed channels like eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz to DStv, or for eMedia to make a carriage deal with StarSat, or whether the door on pay-TV carriage for these channels are permanently closed.

"It will be up to them. Our strategy is that our channels are free-to-air channels and should be available wherever people access channels. So that's their decision, there's no regulation that they need to carry the channels. Our view is that they should."

'Mass retrenchments' coming to eMedia's eNCA with 'consolidation' of jobs countrywide inside the TV news channel: 'eNCA bleeding staff as it is but they're cutting even more'.

by Thinus Ferreira

"Mass retrenchments" are looming at eMedia Investments' eNCA (DStv 403) TV news channel in South Africa according to insiders, affecting staffers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban across various workflow divisions that will see scores of people lose their jobs in so-called "consolidation" of work responsibilities.

eNCA staffers once again reiterated the ongoing refrain, heard constantly again since last month, without prompting, when they talk: "Staff morale is at an all-time low" inside the TV news channel. 

TVwithThinus already reported that eMedia plans to shutter its etv News & Sport channel on its Openview satellite service at the end of March which will see 45 workers lose their jobs. eMedia said the etv News & Sport channel is "no longer viable".

TVwithThinus already reported earlier this week that eMedia Investments plans to get rid of over half of its video editors and senior video editors by the end of April who were served with Section 189 retrenchment letters on Monday in a process overseen by eNCA eNCA managing director Norman Munzhelele.

According to sources, just 11 out of eNCA's 25 long-form and news video editors are safe, with the newsroom that has moved to a system where producers, writers and reporters have to do their own editing, making video editors obsolete.

 eMedia in response to a media query said "We acknowledge your questions and queries, however this is an ongoing, internal matter that is sensitive and will be facilitated with the utmost respect, whilst preserving the dignity of our staff".

"The company is committed to all relevant and applicable labour legislation."

Sources told TVwithThinus that eNCA staffers were called to a meeting on On Wednesday morning in Johannesburg where the mass retrenchment process was announced by Norman Munzhelele affecting eNCA staffers across Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

eNCA plans "consolidation" broadly across five different workflow areas.

Norman Munzhelele's plan is to "consolidate" the desk editor and programme editor positions at eNCA, meaning that basically the programme editors will be lumped together with desk editor duties.

"Consolidation" is also coming to producers and guest bookers - with the result that guest bookers will lose their jobs.

The company has also adopted a new archive strategy that will result in archive team staffers getting axed.

The plan is further to integrate sports into news which could mean that the sports news team will face job cuts too.

Then eNCA wants to "drive efficiencies" in Cape Town and Durban - meaning that staff working in those cities will likely see their job numbers cut.

According to sources in the past few weeks a desk editor, assignment editor and programme editor resigned at eNCA.

"eNCA is bleeding staff as it is, but they're cutting even more," said another insider. "Staff morale is at an all-time low."

ALSO READ: eNCA plans to axe over half of its video editors served with Section 189 letters.

ALSO READ: eMedia to shut 'no longer viable' etv News & Sport channel and axe 45 workers. 

MultiChoice confirms addition of NBCUniversal's DreamWorks channel, will add another movie channel later in 2022.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice that is taking away the set of e.tv channels except for eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv from 1 April confirmed on Wednesday that it's adding the DreamWorks kids TV channel from NBCUniversal, and will be adding another movie channel later in 2022.

MultiChoice is axing the eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz channels from eMedia Investments from April, with these channels that will remain available on eMedia's Openview satellite service.

MultiChoice confirmed what TVwithThinus reported in mid-February, that NBCUniversal's DreamWorks kids channel, axed on China's StarTimes and StarSat, is being added to DStv soon, with DreamWorks that will be placed on DStv channel 304.

A revived KIX action channel is being made available to DStv Family and DStv Access viewers from 31 March on DStv channel 114.

"We constantly review our channel offering on DStv in line with our viewer's needs," says Nyiko Shiburi, MultiChoice SA CEO, in a statement.

"Although these four eMedia channels will no longer be available on DStv, customers still have access to a wide range of entertainment which includes 200 channels of movies, dramas, sport, kids, news, reality, and so much more."

MultiChoice was asked for comment in a media query regarding the removal of eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra and eToonz from DStv from April, why it decided not to renew the carriage agreement for these specific channels and what research or financial reasons informed the decision.

Comment will be added here when received.

MultiChoice is removing the 4 channels from DStv on the same day that its annual price increase for DStv subscriptions for 2022 comes into effect.

The removal of eMedia's channels from DStv, with the exception of eNCA and e.tv, means that all of e.tv's TV channels carried on DStv are being taken away.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice loses 4 eMedia channels from April, will continue to have eNCA and e.tv on DStv.

ALSO READ: DreamWorks axed on StarTimes and StarSat across Africa.

eMedia to shut 'no longer viable' etv News & Sport channel and axe 45 workers.

by Thinus Ferreira

eMedia Investments plans to close down its etv News & Sport channel on its Openview satellite that it says is "no longer viable" and also wants to move the NewsLink timeslot on eNCA (DStv 403), apparently "not aligned to the tone and pace of news" to Johannesburg with over three dozen staff members affected at etv News & Sport, including working for eNCA, with workers who got served with Section 189 retrenchment letters.

eMedia didn't respond to a media query about the shuttering and retrenchment plan of etv News & Sport that could be gone by the end of March 2022 and will leave 45 people out of jobs.

eMedia launched the unique OpenNews, primarily produced from Cape Town, three years ago in November 2018 on its Openview free-to-air satellite TV service on channel 120.

It was South Africa's first free-to-air TV news channel from a commercial company with the aim of bringing viewers across Southern Africa a new additional TV news choice, more views and more diverse news coverage.

A few months after its launch eMedia renamed OpenNews as e News & Sport, and in August 2019 etv News & Sport was also quietly added to the VIU video streaming service as a streaming channel as well.

OpenNews started broadcasting 18 hours for seven days a week but after the format didn't deliver the expected performance and audience share, the broadcast hours and live news were reduced.

The etv News & Sport channel has been doing a half-hour live news bulletin on weekdays (also broadcast on e.tv) at 13:00, a 3.5 hour broadcast on weekday afternoons, a well-watched half-hour live news broadcast at 20:00, and with repeat programming and sports content over weekends.

Distraught staffers who have now been told that e News & Sport is struggling and must be closed down, say speculation is rife inside corridors that eMedia is being pressured by MultiChoice to get rid of the channel that is allegedly seen as being in direct competition with, and contributing to content dilution of, eNCA.

eMedia produces eNCA exclusively to DStv as part of an existing pay-TV channel carriage agreement that is up for renewal every few years.

eMedia has now served almost 4 dozen shocked staff members with Section 189 letters, signed by managing director Marlon Davids, saying the company has "reassessed the positioning of channel 120 in the Openview bouquet".

A staff meeting is set for Wednesday, with staff who will hear why eMedia wants to close down the TV news channel tomorrow afternoon.

The same etv News & Sport production team is also responsible for the NewsLink programming strand on eNCA, with eMedia that now wants to get rid of those workers and make eNCA's Johannesburg office responsible for doing the morning timeslot between 09:00 and 11:00.

eMedia told staff that etv News & Sport "is no longer viable as a news service and therefore no longer supports the operational requirements".  According to eMedia Investments, etv News & Sport is "not a sustainable or effective channel" in the Openview bouquet "and it will not appeal to audiences as a documentary and current affairs channel".

About the NewsLink timeslot with Cape Town co-anchors Annika Larsen and Tapfuma Makina, eMedia management says that after "careful review of the flow of live news on eNCA, the business has determined that NewsLink is the only product that is outsourced and therefore not aligned to the tone and pace of news".

The plan is to move NewsLink to Johannesburg with new anchors and producers "where it is completely integrated into the carefully planned and facilitated rundown that is specifically designed to increase audience and market share" for eNCA.

No final decision on the NewsLink cross-country move has been taken yet.

eMedia says the restructuring "may lead to the operational dismissal of all of the employees in the company" which includes 37 permanent workers and 8 fixed-term contract workers, including everyone from anchors, editors, producers and camera operators to journalists and various other technical staff.

Low morale and staff 'crushed'

"This is the first time that etv News & Sport staff ever heard that the channel is apparently not performing," an insider said. 

"People are utterly crushed. Many are young, like producers in their 20s. They just started working in news and television and journalism."

"People are gutted about the plan to close etv News & Sport and are openly wondering how much the closure has to do with negotiations between eMedia and MultiChoice over the future of eNCA and to get the channel out of the crosshairs so eNCA can remain on DStv." 

"The morale inside corridors has already been so low - now people are hit with something like this."

eNCA switches to broadcasting from new eMedia Investments building and new studio, plans to install biggest video wall in 3 months.

by Thinus Ferreira

eNCA (DStv 403) on Monday morning, 2 August, finally switched to broadcasting from eMedia Investments' new building in Johannesburg and from new studio space within this building, featuring a wall-to-ceiling window behind the anchor desk, showing how it looks outside and with plans to install the biggest video wall in Africa with 3 to 4 months here.

The move to a new eNCA studio from e.tv's Hyde Park headquarters in Johannesburg has been a long time coming, with eNCA that told TVwithThinus three years ago in July 2019 that the TV news channel plans to move to a new Johannesburg location.

Copying CNN and its iconic James Earl Jones tagline, eNCA also added a male announcer voice-over at the top of the hour, saying "This is eNCA".

eNCA's implementation of new studio space - with the new building that is located very close to the previous 5 Summit Road building in Hyde Park and studio 102 where eNCA used to broadcast from until this past Friday - comes after the rival South African TV news channel Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) introduced its new studio space in March this year after a 4-month revamp.

The new eMedia Investments building is in Albury Road, right next door to 5 Summit Road, where the so-called "west block" building was redeveloped.

The new eNCA studio-look immediately suffered two very evident problems: dirty windows and glare. Viewers could see that eNCA forgot to clean the windows properly. 

The studio also suffers from a reflection problem. 

Viewers can see what's behind the eNCA cameras, as well as "offside" to the sides since the windows behind the anchor desk reflect back - like a mirror from certain angles and depending on darkness and light - various things like doors, the desk and studio, monitors and even the ceilings lights that create more on-air clutter than is necessary.

Besides eNCA staffers, the building also houses e.tv, eMedia Sales, Openview and YFM radio station employees.

Norman Munzhelele, eNCA managing director, in an interview at 8:30 on Monday morning on the channel, said that "it's been a long journey because of Covid" getting to move to and broadcasting from the new building.

"We've got the biggest video wall in Africa, this building will enable us to use that video wall to the maximum," he said, with eNCA that will still move to a bigger studio space within the building within months.

"We had to move fast from 5 Summit Road to here. But I think in the next 3 to 4o months we will be in that studio where we will have the biggest studio in Africa."

eNCA celebrated the first broadcast from the new building on Monday with a silver and white cake.

IN IMAGES. 29 photos of eMedia Investments and the SABC's media event to announce their channels carriage agreement for Openview.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Thursday night eMedia Investments and the SABC in a joint media event, announced a groundbreaking channels carriage contract whereby several SABC TV channels and the SABC's 19 radio stations would now be carried on eMedia's Openview free-to-air satellite service.

eMedia and the SABC held the media event that was broadcast live on eNCA (Dstv 403) and SABC News (DStv 404) in one of the conference venues at the Tsogo Sun Hyde Park hotel.

The entire event was extremely well organised and look beautiful - a blend of corporate colours of eMedia and e.tv's red and black with the SABC touch of green, white and black.

With temperature checks, hand sanitiser and masks, it was the very first physical media launch that TVwithThinus attended in literally a year since everything shut down in March 2020 because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

On the constructed stage in the venue, eNCA anchor Sally Burdett and SABC News reporter Aldrin Sampear interviewed Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, as well as Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, about the deal between eMedia and the South African public broadcaster.

Pabi Moloi who recently joined The Morning Show on e.tv as the latest presenter addition was the master of ceremonies.

Guests sipped on champagne, while waiters later took drinks orders and circulated with snacks and later an array of delectable desserts. 

Guests received an Openview set-top box (STB) and a black, SABC-branded mobile power bank in red goodie bags that were handed out at the end of the event.

Here are images from the event in 29 photos:

ALSO READ: eMedia Investments' Openview adds SABC Sport, 19 SABC radio stations and 2 further SABC TV channels in 'ground-breaking' carriage agreement.

eMedia Investments' Openview adds SABC Sport, 19 SABC radio stations and 2 further SABC TV channels in 'ground-breaking' carriage agreement.

by Thinus Ferreira

Openview is adding the South African public broadcaster's SABC Sport channel, along with its 19 SABC radio stations, as well as a further two as-yet-unannounced SABC TV channels, to its free-to-air satellite service in a new channel carriage agreement that eMedia Investments and the SABC calls "ground-breaking".

While eMedia Investments' Openview has carried SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 for the past few years until now it has been without payment. The new, expanded channel carriage agreement will bring more content to the Openview service whilst creating a new content revenue stream for the SABC.

Notwithstanding this agreement at the platform level, the SABC's TV channels and radio stations will continue to compete for audience and advertising with the various eMedia-owned TV channels and services, similar to the way that eMedia and the SABC are currently competitors on the analogue network.

Through this channel carriage agreement that was announced on Thursday night at a media event in Hyde Park, Johannesburg and broadcast live on the eNCA and SABC News channels, the SABC is officially entering the free-to-air satellite TV market that which will supplement the SABC's channel footprint on digital terrestrial television (DTT), as well as on streaming platforms like Telkom ONE.

The SABC's channels are already carried on satellite pay-TV services like MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes' StarSat under so-called "must-carry" regulations but in exchange for bigger universal access the broadcaster isn't getting paid for that carriage.

First among the three new SABC TV channels that will be added to Openview is SABC Sport that will launch on Openview soon on channel 124, with eMedia saying it will announce a launch date within the next month. 

In a SABC Sport channel sizzle reel shown at the event the public broadcaster teased coverage of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as well as international soccer, South African rugby, local cricket and boxing coverage. 

SABC Sport will also be distributed simultaneously across Openview, DTT, Telkom ONE and other streaming platforms.

The other two SABC TV channels that will be announced within the next 3 months will leverage extensive SABC content and archived material and might likely include a general entertainment channel like the now-defunct SABC Encore channel that the SABC supplied to DStv as part of a carriage contract that ended.

eMedia and the SABC says in a joint statement that "Openview and the SABC believe that this new agreement will expedite digital migration from analogue-only households to digital broadcasting platforms with more compelling free-to-air channels and content".

"Together with the DTT platform, Openview provides audiences with a free high-definition (HD) alternative to both analogue terrestrial and pay satellite options."

Openview, which has grown its availability to 2.3 million TV households so far, and the SABC, say that the "ground-breaking new distribution agreement will enhance both companies in the free-to-air category of television broadcasting" and that their collaboration "signals a seismic shift in the country's broadcasting landscape".

"With this agreement, the SABC ensures that its content, in all its formats, continues to resonate with the prescripts of its public mandate, and more so in providing universal access to credible content."

"The agreement also guarantees HD broadcast quality and free access to the SABC’s television network wherever you are in South Africa. For Openview, this agreement enhances its strength in the direct-to-home (DTH) space with additional content and a solid binding collaboration with the public broadcaster."

Antonio Lee, eMedia Investments COO, says the carriage agreement "is an exciting development for both the SABC and ourselves. The agreement ushers in a new level of collaboration between a private free-to-air satellite platform and public free-to-air broadcast services".

"There is no doubt it will boost the offering of Openview and will extend the SABC’s audience reach. We can now offer our Openview audience additional quality content and access to digital broadcast radio in the widest variety of languages possible in South Africa. We hope this is the start of a stronger and more fruitful relationship between Openview and the SABC".

Ian Plaatjes, SABC COO, says "This agreement enables the SABC to grow its channel offering and reach into the digital broadcasting space with three additional HD television channels".

"The agreement also enhances the distribution of SABC radio stations to create an increased value proposition for our radio advertising inventory."