TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV reports and articles to read - 3 March 2021.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:    

■ Netflix has commissioned an Asterix limited animation series.

■ SHOCKER: "Just a question of time" until the ultimate demise of traditional pay-TV.

■ Cord-cutting whereby American consumers dump their traditional pay-TV subscription was the worst-ever in 2020.

■ ANC political party doing public protests over eNCA's (DStv 403) racist mask scandal.

- ANC gives eNCA 7 days to respond to its racist mask incident.

- ANC to submit official complaint to Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA).

■ Dear M-Net (DStv 101) with Love Island SA scandal, eNCA (DStv 403) with racist mask scandal, and everyone else working in PR in South African television: Top six Disney lines every creative PR pro should live by.

■ The BBC yet again interviewed the wrong person and this time it got fooled in a deliberate hoax.

■ The SABC and the Emzini Wezinsizwa actors Jerry Phele and Augustine Shotholo are fighting over unpaid residuals the actors are owed after the SABC broadcast repeats of seasons of the show.

■ As Prince Phillip remains in hospital, will Britain's ITV delay the broadcast of Oprah's bombshell interview special with Harry and Meghan?

■ "Love Island South Africa cast on M-Net (DStv 101) doesn't feel South African."

■ China's StarTimes pay-TV operator in Africa denies that it is under a liquidation order over unpaid debt for content rights - but hilariously admits that it is in court proceedings over it - which is exactly what was originally reported.

■ Taylor Swift slams Netflix over deeply sexist joke about her love life.

■ The famously matricless former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng and other SABC executives must pay back the money paid to certain music "legends".

■ Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257) staffers shocked over its launch of Rightly as a rightwing platform: "A betrayal of the values that we work towards". m: "

■ ViacomCBS's Paramount+ video streaming service is targeting a younger demographic.

■ A lot more SABC staffers are getting fired and left without jobs in the retrenchment process of the South African public broadcaster than just 300 says Bemawu trade union.

■ 2021's Golden Globes ratings crater.

- Viewers tuning out of the fake fest.

- 78th Golden Globes ratings fall to an All-Time Low.

- It's time to ditch the Golden Globes.

- Technical glitches were not the only disasters at the tone-deaf HFPA's Golden Globes.

■ Jon Bon Jovi admits that he has never watched Sex and the City although he appeared in it.

■ Disney CEO Bob Shapek sees no turning back from the introduction of new streaming-movie release windows.

■ Is Discovery Inc.'s new video streaming service Discovery+ a success?

■ "A la Carte" - the opposite of the "bundling" of TV channels with traditional pay-TV is taking on a whole new meaning with video streamers.

■ The BBC is reviving its axed BBC3 TV channel as a linear broadcast channel from January after it was shuttered in 2015.

The BBC will double its content commissions for the channel over the next 2 years as it focuses on content for 16 to 35-year olds.

■ Will the future of Grey's Anatomy seen on M-Net (Dstv 101) be decided sooner rather than later?

■ Why Disney releases Friday episodes of WandaVision on its Disney+ streaming service late in the night on Thursdays to the world except for South Africa where thousands pirate view it.

■ "Television is capable of ripping you apart."

■ Ryan Seacrest on why he left E!'s (DStv 124) red carpet coverage after 14 years  just before the Golden Globes.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 7 November 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ In America the news media waits and waits and waits to make a historic winner call in that country's 2020 presidential election.

- Ad pressure mounts, rifts emerge inside Fox News (StarSat 261) over America's 2020 presidential election coverage.

- Stephen Colbert chokes up over Donald Trump's speech.

- TikTok is swooning over a new kind of celebrity: election analysts.

-Fox News (StarSat 261) hits a dangerous new low as it chooses to mislead American viewers about the state of that country's election.

- The passion on American TV news is great viewing. But be careful what you wish for.

- "My nerves can't take the American election, so I'm watching the Discovery Channel (DStv 122)."

- Shame, Gareth Cliff seen on eNCA (DStv 403) isn't happy with the American election results.

- 4 years too late America's TV establishment puts Donald Trump on mute.

- How reality caught up with the reality TV president.

- Ivanka Trump getting more reality TV offers "than she has ever received in her life".

- MUST WATCH: "Never do maths on national television" - Reporters all over trying to do calculations on live TV.

- Nate Silver meltdown after another yet American polling disaster.

FiveThirtyEight website slammed after way-off election predictions.

■ The teen who won America's election night.

Teenage son of Pennsylvania's attorney-general Josh Shapiro accidentally crashes his dad's live TV news interview. Watch the "slowly backing out" here.

■ "What a profitable day": CNN International (DStv 401) pushes vapid promos to fill its empty advertising inventory to a maximum degree during 2020 American election coverage. Viewers going crazy over the insanely repetitive and "deranged" Richard Quest ad running through a maze.

■ MUST MUST READ: The media's thin line between reporting and enabling, when opinion has become cheaper than news gathering.

■ Absolutely tone-deaf: MultiChoice Nigeria holding its first-ever DStv Golf Day in Lagos; relaxing tee-off on green lawns for the rich who can win a business class ticket to Dubai while struggling country is going through hell.

■ Warner Bros. fires wife-beater Johnny Depp from Fantastic Beasts film franchise.

■ Strictly Come Dancing seen on BBC Brit (DStv 120) difficult to film without a live studio audience.

■ Rachel Maddow off MSNBC (StarSat 263) after possible Covid-19 exposure.

■ Boba Fett could be getting his own TV drama series spin-off on Disney+ following Star Wars: The Mandalorian appearance.

■ Saudi Arabia soap opera heralds a new era for Middle East regional TV drama.

■ Disney pulls the last of its planned 2020 film releases from the year's cinema release slate.

■ The rise and fall of pay-TV in America.

Digital video streaming has had a significant effect on pay-TV, in the same way pay-TV had on broadcast TV decades ago - meaning lower ratings.

■ How 2020 changed children's television.

■ Skip it: Netflix's amateurish Nigerian film Citation filled with awkwardly staged drama.

■ Media in Tanzania unable to cover the Covid-19 pandemic because of news blackout.

■ The number 1 task of Merlin Naicker who took over at SABC "ghost town" from 1 April 2020 as broadcaster's head of TV: "Bring back the  audience numbers, and that really brings back the advertisers".

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 26 October 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ SABC3's Expresso presenter Katlego Maboe and that sexually transmitted disease (STD): No place to hide for TV personality.
Allegedly also cheated on Monique Muller while she was pregnant with their son and multiple other times claims her brother Seth Muller.

■ Monique Muller does tell-all sit-down interview over Katlego Maboe and alleged physical abuse:

Alleges that she got a restraining order the first time he hit her: "When the first physical attack happened, I got a protection order against him. He then admitted to sleeping with this woman".

- People called to couple's house late at night after alleged abuse.

- Monique Muller says there was a lot of intimidation against her brother Seth; other woman and her husband lock their social media accounts. (Afrikaans) (subscription required)

- Katlego Maboe "a wrecking ball of a human being".

- e.tv's Durban Gen drama series trolls with a "gown confession".

- Lessons from the Katlego Maboe debacle: Your private life on social media impacts your real professional life.

- The Katlego Maboe blame game saga:

Why are some people making the Katlego Maboe cheating and alleged abuse scandal about the issue that the shocking video should have been kept private, instead of the serious contents of the video?

■ In America, media executives are finally accepting the decline of traditional pay-TV; trying to figure out a new path forward.

- 25 million pay-TV subscribers to cancel over next 5 years; 

- Pay-TV operators no longer care whether customers subscribe or not but just keep increasing prices;

- billions in losses in revenue for Disney, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, Fox, Discovery Inc., AMC Networks;

- golden goose of bundling TV channels dying;

- Video streaming not the saviour and not superior;

- pay-TV channels like ESPN likely to cut back on programming, that will likely lead to less viewers;

- the total TV channels bundle is going to shrink

■ You think you want it, but why you don't want that happy ending.

■ Niecy Nash doesn't care about losing fans because of her wedding.

■ "Daylight robbery": SABC wants payment for watching Netflix South Africa. (subscription required)

Absurd tax is similar to King William III of England who introduced a daylight tax in 1696, causing people to brick up their windows to block the sunlight.

■ SABC's last resort to try and recover lost SABC TV Licence fees.

- Attorney: Neither MultiChoice nor Netflix SA is obliged to accept the responsibility of collecting SABC TV Licence fees.

■ SABC wanting Netflix SA, MultiChoice and others to collect SABC TV Licence fees would create a highly uncompetitive and uneven playing field in the media space:

The SABC needs to choose whether it is a public broadcaster or a commercial competitor, it cannot be both.

■ Tuning out the SABC:

Advertisers and the public have been given every reason to tune out of the SABC. The SABC doesn't even know who has a TV set.

■ SABC execs confirm it has received the letter of demand from the Bemawu trade union demanding that no members of Bemawu will be fired in South African public broadcaster's retrenchment process.

- Bemawu threatens to go to Labour Court if SABC refuses to continue retrenchment talks.

- The CWU trade union that supported Hlaudi Motsoeneng wants to take the battle to the streets and strike.

■ Netflix subscription plummeted and cancellations increased 800% after the release of controversial film Cuties.

Netflix's growth may already have peaked:

Growing evidence that the video streamer is close to saturating its biggest markets.

■ Black staffers demand that Vogue editor Anna Wintour resign.

"I have made mistakes along the way."

■ New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik on the Donald Trump "season finale" and the media burnout from the White House reality show.

■ TV reporter robbed of his cellphone while preparing for a live broadcast.

Diego Demarco of the TV news channel En Vivo El Nueve mugged in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

■ WATCH: The holodeck The Volume: The technology that's replacing the green screen.

■ Is the global video streaming service market oversaturated? In a crowded space there's going to be casualties.

■ Fox News (StarSat 261) president Jay Wallance and several on-air presenters including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Dana Perino and Juan Williams told to quarantine after they were exposed to someone with Covid-19.

■ CNN (DStv 401) could be forced to face a new era without boss Jeff Zucker.

■ MultiChoice, Somizi Mhlongo and producer Legend Manqele all get lawyer's letters.

Drama continues over disastrous Dinner at Somizi on M-Net's 1Magic (DStv 103) that is allegedly content theft of Hastings Moeng's original idea.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 12 August 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:


■ Pay-TV abused its position to get as much money as it could from sports viewers, and didn't want to offer sports, news and entertainment in separate packages. Now it's starting to pay the price.
Now that there isn't any sport on TV in America - similar to the situation with SuperSport in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa - subscribers are cord-cutting in record numbers and switching to video streaming services.

■ Ridiculously amazing: Xiaomi unveils a transparent, see-through flat-screen TV set.
When the TV set is switched off, the display looks like a clear piece of glass. And when it’s turned on, images appear to float in thin air.

■ Video streaming services are driving the commissioning of gay TV content.

■ A lot of TV shows now have one thing in common ...

■ The lifespan of TV series on video streaming services is shrinking.
A series on SVOD now only lasts between 3 to 4 seasons.

■ A challenging time for television in Tanzania.
Authoritarian government in East African country continues to destroy its media landscape with draconian new broadcasting regulations banning foreign content.

■ In-fighting behind-the-scenes at Ghetto TV in Uganda.

■ Drama series White Lines on Netflix canned after one season.

■ "It's dangerous not to see race": Is colour-blind casting all it's cracked up to be?

■ Kenya's former Citizen TV anchor, Joey Muthengi reveals her years-long eating disorder: "I starved myself to maintain that great image on TV".

■ The 30-second TV is history. But what now?

■ Facebook bans blackface, anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Social network expands racist ban on writings and imagery in expanding hate speech policy.

■ Sky News (DStv 402 / StarSat 258) and BBC World News (DStv 400 / StarSat 256) accused of voyeurism in their coverage of migrant boats.
Live TV news footage described as dehumanising and "grotesque reality TV show".

■ The non-TV story of the day: American aquarium is washing old wishes to pay bills during Covid-19 pandemic.
Tossed coins scrubbed to pay bills.

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 29 July 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

Netflix breaks HBO's record for the most Emmy nominations ever.
HBO's Watchmen earned 26 nominations - the most of any show - and the Television Academy gave newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV + their first nominations.
- Emmy 2020 snubs and surprises: Baby Yoda breaks through.
- TV critics on whether television should be celebrating itself when the Covid-19 pandemic rages on.


■ "Kosher Netflix" launches in Israel.
No dancing to be seen as religious Jewish subscribers can press the "Skip" button to protect their modesty and flick past "problematic" scenes in the new video streaming service, Tov.

■ What is the optimum number of seasons for a TV sitcom before it jumps the shark?
Season 7, episode 3.

■ Television cinematography takes a Quantum Leap.

■ Pay-as-you-go for solar-powered pay-TV in Africa.

■ Convicted paedophile worked on the set of New Zealand children's show.

■ Britain's Sky pay-TV operator embraces the possibilities of showcasing Art on television.

■ How 2020 pressed Fast Forward on the video streaming wars.
- And the early winners and losers: The "What's gone right", What's gone wrong" and the "Verdict".


■ Major League Baseball (MLB) shown on ESPN might get cancelled this season because of Covid-19.
- Slimmed-down baseball on TV has broadcast workers worried about job cuts.
- Major League Baseball pulls the rug out from Amazon Prime Video with shortened season.


■ Apple's Apple TV+ video streaming service is off to a very slow start and isn't generating revenue.


■ "Shame on Big Brother Naija."
Is Edafe Ufoma Holy on drugs or something? In a c-r-a-z-y and hilarious rant over MultiChoice and M-Net's latest 5th season of Big Brother Nigeria, "Ebuka, the presenter got penis erection while interviewing that lady with massive breasts", and "The most handsome of all the male contestants is a yellow skin guy but with little manhood".


■ DStv now charging the same for less, says a subscriber, while DStv Customer Service says "We do not have replacement channels".
"We are left with 20-year old repeats and channels which give us films with excessive violence".

■ If Facebook and social media is the new cigarettes, then this is what we must learn fro the 1970's.

■ Hollywood's lost summer.


■ Adewunmi Ogunsanya, MultiChoice Nigeria chairperson recovers after Covid-19.
Unadulterated joy blossoms in the bosoms of relatives, friends and associates of the successful, beefy lawyer who had coronavirus with the news about Erujeje's healing that has sent his people rejoicing and felicitating with him.

■ Australia's version of Farmer Wants a Wife wants to bring back "wholesome reality TV".

■ Nigeria finally adds sign language to national news briefings on TV.
- While South Africa's SABC puts out a new tender looking for sign language service providers for 3 years.

■ The future of video streaming services is ongoing subscriber churn.
Viewers will subscribe and unsubscribe as new content comes and goes that they might be interested in.

■ SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon says the South African public broadcaster wants to get to a place where it doesn't have to ask for government bailouts again.

Coronavirus: 'Carnage in pay-TV' in the United States as subscription television catches Covid-19, how will MultiChoice and StarTimes fare in Africa once consumers feel the pain of unemployment and sportless content?

by Thinus Ferreira

Utterly shocking pay-TV subscriber losses have been registered in the United States because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic during the first quarter of 2020, portending nothing good for South Africa and Africa where MultiChoice's DStv and StarTimes/StarSat might face similar large churn in subscribers before long.

Decimated by rising unemployment and a lack of actual sports content, American pay-TV subscribers have cancelled their traditional pay-TV subscriptions in droves during the first term - factors that are present and growing within the South African and sub-Saharan Africa market as well.

"It would be unseemly to resort to hyperbole to describe the carnage in pay-TV in the first quarter," the MoffettNathanson analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson wrote in their Friday report entitled "Pay-TV Catches Covid" about the shocking latest subscribers losses in the United States - a new record.

"Better that we simply report the numbers. Traditional pay-TV subscriptions fell by a record 1.8 million in the first quarter, the worst quarterly result on record, bringing the annual rate of decline to 7.6 percent, also a record," they wrote.

In what's an ominous warning for South African and African brands like MultiChoice, SuperSport, StarTimes and others, they write: "With sports off the air, and with the pain of the tsunami of unemployment just beginning to hit as the quarter ended, all these numbers will get worse in the second quarter."

"Without sports and with economic pressures on families mounting by the end of the quarter, the migration to virtual [pay-TV] absolutely tanked."

"Given the unfortunate rate of United States unemployment the rising cost of pay-TV, the current lack of live sports and much cheaper over-the-top (OTT) alternatives, we expect that rate of cord-cutting to materially accelerate in the coming quarters."

As "distraction-starved, shut-in consumers" are signing up for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, they're leaving the too expensive traditional satellite pay-TV options behind.

"It is increasingly clear that as consumers climb into these lifeboats, they are leaving the sinking motherships behind," the analysts wrote.

Meanwhile, South African DStv subscribers' anger and resentment towards MultiChoice is growing with a petition that was started, that has grown to over 208 000 signatures by Friday afternoon after just two weeks.

DStv subscribers are furious with MultiChoice - which has decided to say nothing and to stay silent and ignore the growing issue.

Sfiso Gwala started the petition entitled "DStv should give S.A. subscribers a payment break or decrease prices during Covid-19" on the change.org platform where it has quickly shot up to become one of the highest "trending" and popular petitions on the platform.

The petition was prompted after South African DStv subscribers discovered that MultiChoice through its MultiChoice Africa division is giving discounts of up to 75% to DStv and GOtv subscribers, as well as automatically upgrading them to the next higher bouquet for free as part of consumer relief because of Covid-19 national shutdowns.

MultiChoice which is not giving South Africa's DStv subscribers the similar free bouquet upgrades across the board because of the Covid-19 pandemic as for DStv subscribers elsewhere in Africa, has now provided relief for its subscribers in a large number of countries, including Nigeria and Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.

Africa's pay-TV subscribers set for continued growth, will reach 45.63 million in sub-Saharan Africa by 2024.

Africa's pay-TV subscribers in South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa will continue its strong growth despite the much-hyped threat from global video streaming services, and will reach 45.63 million pay-TV subscribers by 2024.

According to new market research from Digital TV Research, the projection is that sub-Saharan Africa will add more than 16 million additional pay-TV subscribers over the next 5 years between 2019 and 2024, for a total of 45.63 million.

According to Digital TV Research's new Sub-Saharan Africa Pay TV Forecasts 3 pay-TV providers account for 93% sub-Saharan Africa'ss pay-TV subscribers in 2018.

While all three are forecast to increase their pay-TV subscriber base over the next half a decade, their proportion is expected to fall to 89% by 2024.

Naspers' The MultiChoice Group that plans to unbundle and spin-off as its own company in the first half of this year had 14.34 million pay-TV subscribers across satellite pay-TV platform DStv and digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform GOtv at the end of 2018.

MultiChoice will grow this by 5 million to 19.37 million by 2024.

France's Vivendi had 4.01 million pay-TV subscribers for its Canal Plus satellite pay-TV platform and Easy TV DTT platform by the end of 2018. Vivendi will grow this to 6.21 million by 2024.

Meanwhile China's StarTimes (StarSat in South Africa and Southern Africa) had 7.75 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of 2018 and will grow this to 14.85 million by 2024 - roughly what MultiChoice has currently.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, says "Subscriber numbers will climb by 61% over this period, but pay-TV revenues will rise by only 42%, indicating lower average revenue per user (ARPUs)".

"Pay-TV revenues will reach $7.72 billion by 2024, up by $2.3 billion on 2018."

What South Africa's viewers have been asking for is now happening in India: Pick and pay only for the individual pay-TV channels you want.

A quiet but dramatic change is coming to India with something that South Africa's pay-TV subscribers have been clamouring for: From 1 February India's satellite pay-TV customers will get to pick and only pay for the TV channels they want - although there are some catches.

The idea or hope is that pay-TV subscribers in India will be paying less for their monthly pay-TV subscription bill when they only choose the TV channels they want and pay for those.

That, however, might not necessarily be the case and the regulatory move is more about improving "openness and transparency" about the price of pay-TV services - something that the change will do, than making pay-TV subscriptions cheaper.

According to reports, in a move that will have a far-reaching impact for pay-TV viewers and pay-TV operators in India, the country's regulator is forcing all pay-TV companies to publish prices of individual pay-TV channels, and to allow pay-TV consumers to pick only the channels they individually want, and to then only pay for those.

In Canada a similar regulatory move by the CRTC in 2016 was an epic failure when that country's broadcasting regulator ordered pay-TV companies to provide consumers with a limited bundle of main TV channels, and in 2017 ordered them to make an option for individual pick-and-pay TV channels available.

Since the introduction of the so-called a-la-carte option instead of the so-called bundling of channels into pay-TV packages, Canada's pay-TV subscriptions have been in decline (further fuelled by the growth in video streaming services like the arrival of Netflix).

India's broadcasting regulator, is now mandating similar sweeping changes from 1 February in that country - something that South African pay-TV subscribers have also asked for, but that companies like Naspers' MultiChoice (that runs the DStv and GOtv services in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa) have said is not possible to do or to provide.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not just ordered that country's pay-TV operators to provide the pick-and-pay of individual TV channels as a new system option to existing and potential pay-TV subscribers, but has also ordered pay-TV companies to list upfront the price of every TV channel.

TRAI is going even further and although India is a free-market consumer economy, has ordered a cap on the maximum price per TV channel a pay-TV operator will be allowed to charge - Rs19 or R3.78 per month.

TRAI says the new pick-and-pay system for the TV channels pay-TV users want will "free" viewers in India from having to pay for a specific set of TV channels in a bouquet or package in the way that MultiChoice, China's StarTimes/StarSat, Deukom and others in South Africa and Africa have sold traditional pay-TV subscriptions.

There are several small print caveats, however.

India's pay-TV subscribers should get ready for the listicle bill. Similar to hospital, hotel and restaurant bills, India's pay-TV subscribers are going to hit pay-TV subscribers with itemised billing.

It does mean bigger transparency for every purchased line-item with customers able to see exactly what they're charged for but also the opportunity for pay-TV operators to add additional charges for items and services that previously were lumped in somewhat for "free" or as part of an overall cost.

For instance: It won't be possible to pick and pay for just one TV channel. Every pay-TV subscriber will pay from the outset for a basic package of 100 standard definition (SD) free-to-air TV channels. Those 100 channels will come with a base cost called a monthly "connection fee".

It also means that receiving free-to-air channels through pay-TV in India will no longer be free.

Beyond the basic 100-channels bundle, pay-TV subscribers will be able to pick and add channels individually, each at a different cost, but no channel allowed to be more expensive that the maximum fee for an individual channel set by the regulator.

After reports that pay-TV costs will rise, TRAI in a press release admits that India's pay-TV subscribers will pay less but that it's from the understanding that a pay-TV household will also have and want a reduced number of TV channels. TRAI says consumers will pay less because they will decide to have less TV channels.

TRAI worked on a model of 50 TV channels, saying "more than 90% of TV homes view/flip 50 or lesser number of channels".

"Therefore any analysis that keeps 250 or more channels for pricing of monthly tariffs, creates a false impression."

"If a consumer chooses the channels which he really watches, then he will be paying a lesser amount compared to what he's paying as of now."

Will watching pay-TV in India get costlier? Well, not from the beginning, and not immediately, and also not if a consumer chooses only a few channels. Pay-TV operators are already working on offering and building in steep discounts to maintain current pricing levels and to prevent any bill shock during and after the switch-over.

But over time - and only time will tell - once heavy discounts expire or are phased out, monthly pay-TV bills in India could possibly increase. Consumers who also opt for a lot of TV channels will pay more.

Also to keep in mind is that the administration systems and admin costs of running and implementing numerous different customer channel choices, as well as paying for channel carriage agreements in order to have those potential channels available as a choice for potential picking by consumers, will add a big financial burden to pay-TV operators' operating costs bottom-line.

These are costs that pay-TV companies, like any business in the business of making a profit for shareholders, will pass on to customers.

New study finds consumers are confused by streaming services; more would drop pay-TV if they knew what was available and could stream live programming, especially sports.

New American research from a TV consumer study has found that consumers are confused by streaming services (so-called over-the-top or OTT operators like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video etc.), don't know what programming, and live programming, are available or where; and that more would dump their pay-TV subscriptions and switch to streaming services if more live programming were available, especially sports.

Since the United States has a more sophisticated and more mature TV market and consumer market, it's easy to postulate that the findings of the study by Telaria and Adobe, entitled "Inside the Minds of Cord-Cutters and Cable-Keepers", would be true - and even more so - for South Africa and Africa.

South African consumers and pay-TV subscribers are still getting used to nascent streaming services ranging from Naspers' Showmax run by MultiChoice that also provides the DStv satellite direct-to-home (DTH) pay-TV service, Netflix operating Netflix South Africa, Amazon Prime Video, Cell C black, and a few other small service.

While streaming service uptake in South Africa is rapidly growing, it's still from a very small base with streamers like Showmax, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video unwilling to make subscriber numbers per market, like in South Africa, available.

What the Telaria and Adobe study found is that while a lot of people switch to streaming services, even more would switch and get rid of their existing traditional pay-TV subscription if they knew that they could get live programming - especially sports content - and knew what live TV programming existed.

Among consumers who won't let go of their pay-TV subscription - people called "cable keepers" - 20% said they don't know how, if they dropped their pay-TV, how they would access live TV.

"Despite steady declines in subscribers, cable still dominates viewership," the study found.

"The primary reason people keep the cord is the perception that only a linear connection can deliver live television content (42%). The second and third most common reasons are the desire to have a lot of TV channels (34%), and the fear of losing favourite networks (32%)."

Sports content and other live TV events are also strong reasons why people want and want to keep their pay-TV subscription.

According to the study 30% of "cable keepers" said they would drop their pay-TV subscription of they could stream their favourite sports content, live events they want to watch and TV news.

Pay-TV subscribers also don't know enough about streaming services, and don't know what is available, and where.

More than half (55%) say they are confused by the available streaming options.

"Despite the barriers, almost half of cable subscribers have or are considering cutting the cord," the study found.

"This is especially true among millennials, who outpace older segments in cord-free status. One in three pay-TV subscribers would definitely cut the cord if they could live stream their favourite sports, events and news, and an additional 40% would consider it."

"Sports fans are even more likely to consider cutting the cord if they could live stream programming."

According to the study the top reason why people dropped their pay-TV subscription was that it was deemed to be too expensive (73%), that everything was available through streaming (36%), and that there were too many TV channels available on the pay-TV bouquet (36%).

The study found that a lot of people are accessing streaming services through password sharing. A whopping 16% of respondents said they use someone else's password from a network or a provider to authenticate an app on a device.

Another 21% share their passwords with friends and family. Interestingly people are more satisfied with the price they're paying for streaming services than for traditional pay-TV with 70% saying they're satisfied with the monthly price they're paying for streaming, compared to just 40% for traditional pay-TV subscribers.

Africa's pay-TV market set for massive growth, pay-TV growth set to outstrip all other international regions until 2022.

While a lot is being said about how video streaming services are destroying traditional pay-TV services, pay-TV growth in Africa is actually set to outstrip all other international regions until 2022, according to the latest research.

Despite breathless reporting about how subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming services are cannibalising and destroying direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay-TV services in South Africa and Africa, a new report finds that massive growth is still in store for satellite pay-TV companies in Africa and the Middle East (AME) with household penetration that will rapidly increase over the next 5 years from 16% in 2017 to 23.2% in 2022.

While there's ongoing navel-gazing about how video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Showmax and others are taking over from satellite TV, according to new research from GlobalData, a data and analytics company, Africa and the Middle East's pay-TV market - although still underdeveloped - is growing rapidly.

This growth is set to continue according to GlobalData's latest industry report "Pay-TV market trends and opportunities in Africa & the Middle East".

In fact, according to GlobalData, the pay-TV market in Africa and the Middle East is expected to grow faster than all other regions in the years ahead.

In Africa companies like MultiChoice, China's StarTimes and a few regionaled other ones are in an ongoing race to get into as many homes as possible.

"We are witnessing strong overall growth in the AME due to the expanding content portfolios, tailored to local audiences. An effective blend of exclusive sport broadcasting, regional and international content in various genres with multiple languages such as Arabic, English and French, help pay-TV providers gain subscribers and remain competitive in AME," says Jonathan Bachrach, technology analyst at GlobalData.

According to GlobalData, piracy of TV content remains one of the biggest challenges facing pay-TV operators in AME, as the proliferation of illegal set-top boxes (STBs) and decoders continue to negatively impact pay-TV operators' revenues.

According to GlobalData anti-piracy initiatives are vital to protect operator investments in premium broadcasting content and revenue streams.

According to research firm, Dataxis, MultiChoice that will be spun off by Naspers during the first half of 2019 has been and remains a key player in the English-speaking African pay-TV market.

2018's TV TRENDS MASTER CLASS: David Abraham at the MultiChoice Digital Dialogue Conference unpacks the big TV trends shaping the world right now - and what it means for Africa's broadcasters.

In a hugely informative session, sharing a wealth of insight and background information, the British TV executive David Abraham unpacked the big and seismic TV trends - and how they are interlocking, at the recent 5th edition of the Digital Dialogue Conference.

He explained how the TV trends impacting America and the United Kingdom - some that already here and those that will be making their way to Africa soon - are fundamentally upending and altering the television and pay-TV broadcasting industry, and what it means for broadcasters and anyone working in television across Africa.

David Abraham, founder of Wonderhood Studios, and who was the chief executive of Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2017, was one of the speakers at the 5th Digital Dialogue Conference that took place in May in Dubai in the United Arab Emirate (UAE), organised by MultiChoice.

In his highly informative talk about the TV trends shaping the world right now and that will be impacting TV and broadcasters in Africa - and are already - he started at the beginning, saying that the pay-TV market "was based on the premise of dependable walls, economic walls, between content, and the consumer".

"Those walls are either in some instances breaking or cracking - or in some countries even disappearing for a whole host of reasons."

Speaking about the UK, as an example, he said that "analogue TV was free at the point of consumption, regulated by the regulator Ofcom, and the dominant players were public service broadcasters that held public licences and had public obligations."

"Then arrived in the 80's and 90's, slowly at first, analogue satellite TV and then cable TV. And it took many years for those businesses to develop but essentially it was a balanced ecosystem of cable, satellite and free TV."

"And there were polite walls around some of the content, that drove the value equation for the pay-TV operators - primarily sport. But everyone kind of co-operated and in a sense the consumer had to go through quite a lot of hassle to move between the two different systems. So there was a lot of friction and therefore there was a lot of bundling of content."

"The phrase Balkanisation has been used in terms of how pay-TV operators constantly had to put up higher walls around their content in order to justify the exclusivity and the big bundles that they would charge their consumers,"said David Abraham.

"The way that I see these markets moving now, is that these walls are cracking and actually the arrival of the internet has really changed everything for the way in which these operators can plan for their futures."

"So the future is much more messy; it is much more heterogeneous, and what we are going to find are going to be a number of different models co-existing and overlapping in a much, much more confusing way."

"The world that we are entering is much more frictionless, it's much more fragmented. The global pressure of the digital giants, the scale, and the way that everything is far more trans-national than every before, has meant that this rather neat world of walled gardens that co-existed is changing very, very rapidly."

David Abraham said 4 things are driving this in the UK, in an evermore intensive way: increasing broadband penetration, smartphone penetration, tablet penetration, and connected televisions either within the TV set or through set-top boxes.

"So there are 4 interlocking trends that are leading to fundamental changes to how pay-TV models are evolving."

"It's always been the case that younger people watched fewer hours of TV per day and per week. But we have seen a fundamental reduction in the number of hours of TV being watched by younger demographics."

Moving to the United States, he said "for many, many years we saw pay-television subscriber growth in the US - very expensive bundles for consumers - the APU, the average revenue per user was growing, and now the trend is consistently down for traditional pay-television in the United States."

"Now, it's worth mentioning a couple of things. The US isn't this balanced eco-system we've got in the UK because pay-television is in 99% of all homes, also most pay-television channels carry advertising with very, very high advertising loads. The level of interruption of your television viewing is extremely high."

"And the result of that of course is if there is a proposition that comes in at a lower price point and no advertising interruption, then that proposition is going to grow. And clearly that proposition is the phenomenon that is Netflix."

"If you're thinking of the economics of making an expensive drama or buying expensive sports rights, there's a consistent trend of fragmentation of viewing over different time-slices and over different technologies. And that made the environment in which we're operating a lot messier, a lot more complex and a lot more difficult to manage."


Impact of the 'Digital Giants' on content
"The question has now become the scale of the digital giants and what they might do, and are beginning to do, to exploit that scale, in relation to every other business model in every market."

"Effectively each of these digital players - Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix - they can exploit very particular attributes in their technology to draw audiences ever further away from their traditional patterns of behaviour," explained David Abraham.

"So they have all been experimenting with very expensive content. Amazon bought the Top Gear team and rebranded it The Grand Tour, Netflix has The Crown already, Google through YouTube Red and Facebook Watch that has been launched and is being rolled out."

"What this has driven is an original production boom among the existing, legacy television platform players who are all now responding to this competition by commissioning very expensive, very glossy dramas, because effectively Netflix has driven a box-set behavioural pattern which is being perceived by the consumer to have proper value, and which now has to be reflected in the way that traditional pay-TV operators commission their own, original content."

Box-sets and binge-watching
The other big phenomenon is box-sets and binge-watching has effectively been a cultural phenomenon that young people have massively over-indexed in," said David Abraham.

"I'm sure many of you have experienced this within your family, is that a young child growing up now as a so-called "digital native" is actually entering a world where they have very little concept of a linear TV channel with channel continuity and announcers and something going on at a particular moment in the day."

"Everything they're consuming is binge-watched and on-demand."

"One of the things in the UK is that traditional broadcasters operate according to guidelines in terms of the watershed [time period], protecting children from certain content where the internet doesn't operate like that at all."

"It will be very interesting how African countries will negotiate those taste and decency issues [around content] in an environment where for parents, and for regulators and for leaders there will be a sense of wanting to protect the population in certain environments that are safe and of high quality."

So brand will still matter. Quality will still matter and content will always be king."


Fixed-line operators and sharing sports content rights
"Across Europe the traditional pay-TV markets are becoming more competitive. Telecom operators have proven to be the most potent challengers to those traditional pay-TV operators and competition is heating up around scripted," said David Abraham.

He said fixed-line operators are stepping up too, with some of these operators across Europe also getting into the content acquisition business.

"Interestingly many of these operators are distributing Netflix on their set-top boxes."

"So inevitably you get this evermore complex environment where these legacy players are now bringing in their competitors within their platform propositions."

"Sky that always effectively had the biggest pay-wall around its business model, is going to provide Netflix within its services in the course of the next 12 months which is a strong indication of how things are changing."

"For the first time in the history of Sky, towards the end of last year, they made their Sky Sports channels available to their main competitor BT and BT Sports packages and Sky Sports packages available via cable through Virgin."

"Now the effect of this is very interesting because we had escalating costs of English Premier League (EPL) football rights in the UK that were exponential and that were really challenging the viability of these pay-TV models in the UK - it became almost unaffordable."

"But by allowing to share each others' services, the main players - BT, Virgin and Sky - effectively have put a cap on the growth in the pricing of the EPL packages in the UK."

Consumers using different service simultaneously
"The market in the UK is now driven by two distinct trends: the bundling of pay-TV and telecom services at the upper end, and the rise of cheaper over-the-top (OTT) services at the lower end, said David Abraham.

But besides that, it is also not a black-or-white, either-or model anymore, he explained. Sky now has around 10 million subscribers in the UK, and Netflix UK has over 7 million.

"People are no longer either on satellite, or cable or free TV - you effectively use these OTT services because they're cheaper, and you're using these services whilst also quite probably also using satellite paying your monthly subscription and maybe for broadband as well."

"The inter-relationship between the broadband-relationship, the mobile-relationship, the channel-relationship and then the OTT services is getting evermore complex. Frankly what consumers are doing is switching much more, effectively the switching between services has gone down and consumers are moving around."

"Consumers also don't like to hear about a big show that they can't get. So they might dip in for a month and binge-watch a show and dip out for a while and go to another service. And remember that these services are available on multiple devices - so a much more fluid environment in which these players are operating."

"What this is doing, is putting pressure on margins because obviously the old system of big bundles had a very high margin - there was a lot of friction between consumers moving around and now that is eroding."

"There's an intensification of these trends. So satellite pay-TV is effectively losing customers in the UK. Broadband growth is also slowing and that's also having an effect on the bundling between broadband and TV services, and the winners in all of this are the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services."

"A very complex environment is evolving and all of these things overlap and that has big implications for the future of public broadcasting in the UK because this environment is so much more fragmented."

"For public broadcasters investing in journalism and investing in quality coverage and in coverage that is locally relevant will always have a very important role to play."

New players and models
David Abraham next explained some of the new players and models that are emerging.

"iflix from Asia is already in Africa. This is a very interesting model because effectively it's a developing market model that says Netflix will always be too expensive outside the Western world and there are many rights which in the developing world, are being pirated."

"So this entrepreneur in Asia simply built a business model by going around all of the markets in Asia and looked at what all of the pirated material was, and he created lists of the best-selling pirated material but online through streaming data and through DVD sales, and then he went to the studios and said listen, the price point between the pirated material and Netflix is this big, we'll put it on this service and he branded it iflix. It's an OTT service and it's now in at least 25 countries."

"It's an example of a model that says, if Netflix can't succeed in markets with relatively low income versus Europe and the US, then what model might emerge? And the iflix model is one that a lot of people are looking at very closely."

"Secondly, Cheddar in the US is described as a post-cable channel. Effectively the proposition here is what would Bloomberg look like if it was appealing only to millenials?  And this is what this channel is," said David Abraham.

"This channel is partly a linear channel, it's partly available through social media. So it has a flexible model - it offers operates through the reach of social media, but it is also available as a internet protocol (IP) streamed service. It's doing quite well, it's small, but it's growing."

"If we are thinking of what is the future of the 'TV channel' in a world where we have that level of broadband and mobile penetration, and that scale of influence that social media has, then something like Cheddar might be a sign of things to come in terms of the notion of a linear TV channel."

"In France there's a service called Molotov that's having hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into it.This is a solution to younger people not regarding live, linear TV as for them anymore."

"Molotov attempts to present television in an entirely new way. It is entirely internet protocol (IP) delivered, with original content and acquired content bundled together. It is making headway in France, it has huge investment behind it and it will be very interesting to see if they succeed."

"So I think that television broadcasters can adapt - but they absolutely can't stand still. And at the heart of this is who is owning the consumer relationship."

New TV research finds that viewers are confused by the growing number of TV services, as the novelty of so many options for TV content is starting to wear off.

Are you starting to feel overwhelmed by the growing number of different pay-TV services, each with their own costs and each offering different shows, while you don't know where to really find and watch what?

Well, you're not alone. New research from America that will likely be true for viewers elsewhere in the world as well, has found that a large and growing number of consumers are not just getting more confused about what TV to watch where, but are now also saying they want one source where they want to get their television from.

At the same time, consumers are not keen on getting just one pay-TV service bundle, and less than half of people with a pay-TV subscription say that they feel that their needs as "very well met".

The new research conducted by Hub Entertainment Research, shows the new and growing cognitive dissonance of TV viewers, who have more TV choices than ever before yet feeling less happy and satisfied with what they're getting, while desiring even more, although they want it curated for them from a single source.

While the number of TV choices in America and elsewhere in the world are growing, South Africa and Africa has also seen a flurry of available TV expansion.

Beyond the offerings of e.tv, community TV channels, the SABC as the South African public broadcaster and MultiChoice's DStv, there's also Deukom as well as StarSat from China's StarTimes Media SA as rival pay-TV players.

Then add the growing slew of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Naspers' Showmax, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video who are all working hard at making inroads at viewer growth although they're all still at a very small subscriber base in Africa and South Africa.

Where TV viewers had to fork out for MultiChoice DStv as a one-stop shop for access to premium content from the likes of M-Net and SuperSport, all of the best content is no longer just available here.

In addition to a higher-tiered DStv subscription for access to premium programming, South Africans who really want to see all of the best television, now need an Amazon, Netflix South Africa and Showmax subscription as well in order to catch and keep up with the avalanche of all the buzz-worthy, award-winning and must-watch shows from TV's Golden Era.

According to Hub Entertainment Research's "Best Bundle: Consumer Preferences in a Peak TV World", the ever-expanding number of services is confusing consumers.

Just 22% say more TV offerings mean that it's easier to chose what's best for them - down from 11% in 2017.

More than two-thirds of people (69%) say they're keen to access TV content from a single source - yet they don't want a single pay-TV bundle.

A growing number of people (43%) want services that allow them to choose the TV channels they want to pay for - even if this means that the price per individual TV channel is higher and more expensive with a bigger overall cost than a TV bundle where the overall cost is lower but includes TV channels they don't want or care to watch.

"The novelty of having so many options for TV content is wearing off," says Peter Fondulas at Hub Entertainment Research and one of the authors of the study.

"Now consumers want simplicity and efficiency. Bundles that aggregate content from multiple sources are highly desirable – but only if those bundles include little or no content they know they won't watch."

Jon Giegengack, the study's co-author says "it is not the price of traditional TV bundles that turns consumers off so much as how much of what they pay goes to content they don't even use. Viewers would rather have a bundle comprised of just the content they care about – even if it means they have to pay more for each network".

Africa set to add 17.4 million pay-TV subscribers in the next 5 years as pay-TV subscriptions on the continent continue to soar.

Pay-TV subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa is set to soar and will continue its massive growth in the next 5 years, increasing by 74% between 2017 and 2025, and adding 17.4 million pay-TV subscribers to reach 40.89 million pay-TV households according to the projections in a new research report compiled by Digital TV research.

Together with pay-TV growth, will come an increase in competition, with competing pay-TV companies that are already lowering subscription fees and subsidising decoder costs.

Over the same period, according to projections, pay-TV revenue in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 14% to $6.64 billion.

While South Africa continues to have the most pay-TV subscribers on the continent, Nigeria is set to overtake South Africa by 2021.

By 2023 South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be the top 5 pay-TV countries in Africa according to pay-TV subscriber numbers; followed by Uganda, the Ivory Coast and Angola.

These top 8 African countries according to pay-TV subscribers by 2023 will collectively have three-quarters of the total pay-TV subscriber market by 2023.

From the current 23.49 million pay-TV subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2017, 13.78 million were satellite pay-TV subscribers and 9.11 million were digital terrestrial television (DTT) pay-TV subscribers.

According to Digital TV Research, by 2023 this will have grown to 40.89 million for satellite TV and 8 million DTT pay-TV subscribers.

MultiChoice had 12.48 million subscribers across its DStv satellite pay-TV platform service and its GOtv DTT service by the end of 2017, and that is set to increase to 16.66 million by 2023 according to growth estimates.

Naspers' MultiChoice remains by far the largest pay-TV operator on the African continent.

Vivendi had 2.96 million subscribers for its Canal Plus satellite pay-TV platform and Easy TV at the end of 2017 and will likely increase this to 4.87 million by 2023.
 
StarTimes,operating as StarSat in South Africa see its subscriber base in Africa and South Africa increase from 6.23 million subscribers at the end of 2017 to 13.42 million by 2023.

“Pay-TV competition in sub-Saharan Africa is becoming more and more intense, especially given the launch of Kwesé in 14 countries during 2017," says analyst Simon Murray who compiled the research.

New PwC study on pay-TV's growing problem with content discovery: 62% of consumer say they often struggle to find something to watch and pay-TV services are not helping enough.

Brand new research from a PwC study shows how one of pay-TV's problems that is steadily getting worse - the struggle of content discovery for users and finding what to watch - is not properly being addressed by subscription television services.

With more and more television available to watch, pay-TV should be doing more and more different things - not less - to help people find and discover not just new content, but the content they're interested in watching.

Not a week goes by that I don't hear from angry DStv, StarSat and other pay-TV users who bitterly complain that they're not getting their monthly DStv magazine that is due to them.

There's constantly some or other rumour floating that someone or somebody isn't allowed or won't get a printed DStv magazine TV guide, something a paying subscriber is fully entitled to as part of the subscription fee.

I hear from people who pay for television who will tell and show how the electronic programme guide (EPG) from DStv and StarSat is not working, is out of date or simply wrong for some shows or channels.

I hear from subscribers who complain that online guides are wrong and not far enough ahead in times, that they don't have data that's expensive to waste on trying to search confusing sites and schedules online.

I hear often that promos and adverts for shows on TV doesn't contain the written info, times and dates so people can know what the show is that the clip is from, or when it's on or what channel.

I'm often told of mistakes on DStv Catch Up (and I see many, many constantly myself).

The existence of all of these things - together - are extremely important to help viewers to find and discover content they will enjoy watching and their importance cannot be underestimated.

According to the new study - obviously done under American consumers but clearly relevant for all similar and less sophisticated pay-TV markets - at least half of consumers (55%) look for new content to watch at least once per week, with 83% looking for something new to watch a few times per month according to PwC's new content discovery report.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of consumers agree that they often struggle to find something to watch, despite there being many choices available to them. Consumers also say that it is much harder to find something to watch on TV than to read or listen to.

If after only a few minutes a consumer can't figure out what to watch, 1 in every 5 people will just give up and resort to rewatching something they've already seen. Which then likely leads to complaints about repeats.

Here's more alarming statistics: Consumers are begging to discover new, great content on their own. 87% of respondents said they regularly pick a TV show or movie to watch that they hadn't heard of previously.

Patience has dwindled. 74% of respondents know within a few seconds if they'll like a piece of content.

Shockingly, much of today's "quality" content goes undiscovered. 69% of respondents say they feel like they keep hearing about and seeing the same shows over and over again.

Consumers spend, on average, 42% of their time browsing through content because they don't know what they want to watch.

"Consumers are frustrated with the current content discovery process" the PwC research finds.

One plus point: While current pay-TV subscribers also agree that there's too much content available, they are more likely to enjoy (38%) the search for content and are less likely to be frustrated by it than consumers who only stream (23%)."

"Consumers also told us that the traditional channel guide is inherently effortless, making the search experience more relaxing - especially when someone is unsure of what to watch."

"What started as minor annoyance with traditional cable packages has morphed into consumer frustration with today’s ever-expanding video ecosystem," says the PwC study.

"Companies continue to create more content, introduce new distribution platforms, and fight for subscribers and attention, all the while creating more fragmentation and making it harder for the consumer to find something to watch."

"We've moved beyond search and recommendation to the need for personalized content that can help attract, retain, and satisfy the consumer," the PwC research notes. "Hence, the ability to adapt artificial intelligence (AI) and utilize data has become a driving concern for any company working with video."

"The best solutions will pair man with machine to help content publishers and providers stay
competitive and audiences dialed in to the content they care about most."

"Don't just tell me what, tell me why," the PwC study recommends. "Consumers are smart. They
know when they're being pushed content that is not in their best interest. Today's audience wants to understand the "why" behind the what."

"They are more likely to trust what you recommend if the suggestion comes with an explanation. Why does the show have a high rating? What are critics saying? How likely am I to enjoy this show? How did others like me rate it?"

37% of respondents say they don't want to waste their time on starting a new show they might not like, and they find personalized recommendations too risky. "Help consumers make the decision for themselves," says the PwC study.