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.

In shocking double standard China to ban foreign TV content during prime time, imposing severe restrictions on international workers in Chinese shows.

China's Radio and Television Administration has decided to place a blanket ban on all foreign TV content on Chinese television during prime time that stretched from 19:00 to 22:00, along with abruptly placing a 30% quota on all video streaming platform for any imported foreign content.

While China funnels millions of hours of Chinese content that keep increasing and without restriction into territories like Africa during the entire day - including prime time - China in a blatant double standard, doesn't want international content to be shown in China because it wants to prevent "a negative influence on viewers".

The Chinese pay-TV StarTimes operating in Africa and under the StarSat brand in South Africa where it competes with Naspers' MultiChoice for African eyeballs and subscriber fees, pumps dozens of Chinese packaged TV channels into Africa filled with Chinese shows and films.

Under the new regulations China wants to protect itself and Chinese from content that "deviates from socialist core values".

Under the Chinese regulator's increased restrictions, foreign talent such as writers, directors and actors are not allowed to comprise more than one-fifth of total talent in Chinese TV dramas.

In addition, a TV show's writer and director are not allowed to both be foreigners. A lead foreign actor and actress are also banned, with only one allowed per show at maximum.

SABC losing R90 million monthly as South Africa's public broadcaster tells parliament it doesn't have enough money to spend on content as employee costs top R3.1 billion.

The SABC is losing between R80 million and R90 million monthly, with South Africa's public broadcaster that last week told parliament that the embattled broadcaster doesn't have enough money to spend on content while the wage bill is almost double what it spends on content.

The SABC’s expenditure currently far outstrips what the struggling SABC makes in revenue and it is getting worse as its wage bill of R3.1 billion means that 42% of it R.7.3 billion expenditure just goes to paying staffers.

Furthermore the SABC's R3.1 billion spent to pay its 3 478 staffers pales in comparison to the measly R1.7 billion the broadcaster spends on programme, film and sports rights - in other words creating and acquiring content.

The SABC told parliament that the ballooning staff costs over the past few years is the result of higher than inflation salary increases, unauthorised promotions of employees from administration positions to management, and a disregard for policies and processes.

The SABC says its spending so much on staff costs and other expenses that it doesn't have enough money to spend on content to try and lure back audiences.

The SABC told parliament that it's currently losing between R80 million and R90 million per month, while expected revenues are decreasing by 10%.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) political party's member of parliament, Phumzile Van Damme, on Tuesday in a statement called on the broadcaster "to play open cards with the public" and called on the "SABC to reveal its top management salaries from CEO down to group executives".

"This is not confidential information, as the SABC is a public institution and their salaries are a matter of public record."

"In order to ease concerns that the upper echelons of the SABC continue to live the high life, while staff face the possibility of retrenchment, the SABC must reveal the salaries for public scrutiny and to confirm that austerity measures do apply across the SABC," said Phumzile Van Damme.

"We trust that the SABC will, in the public interest, reveal this information."

The SABC in a statement on Monday said that "the salaries of the recently appointed SABC board members and executive management have been significantly reduced and bear no resemblance to the figures quotes in the DA statement" for the SABC to please say what the salaries of the board and executives are now.

TVwithThinus in response to the SABC that brought it up in its statement, asked what the salaries of the SABC board and executives are now.

The SABC didn't respond.

Netflix working on shows, films where viewers get to choose how the story unfolds and ends.

After the success of its Puss in Book show for kids utilising the same technology, Netflix is developing TV series and films where adults will be able to choose how the narrative unfolds and the story ultimate ends.

Bloomberg on Monday first reported that Netflix is now working on "choose-your-own-adventure" style TV content for adults that will let viewers influence the direction of the story and the ending.

According to Bloomberg one of the new episodes in the upcoming season of the Emmy-winning science fiction anthology series Black Mirror will allow viewers with an internet connection to choose their own story line when the 5th season is released in December.

Netflix sees interactive television where viewers get a say in how the story unfolds as part of the next big thing in television entertainment and as another way of luring subscribers who might end up watching an episode of a show not once, but multiple times to experience the different scenes and endings.

According to Bloomberg the new "choose-your-own-adventure" content is difficult and complex to produce - not because of the mapping and making it but because of the deal-making. While traditional films and TV series have a fixed script, this new kinds of shows have longer scripts and needs more production time to film all of the various, slightly different scenarios.

This leads to not just more production time but also higher production costs since writers, producers and talent have to be paid more.

REVIEW. The mistake-filled Nuusdag om 8 on Openview's eExtra channel doesn't offer viewers anything new but its existence helps broaden the local TV news bulletin business.

The mistake-filled Nuusdag om 8 Afrikaans TV news bulletin that e.tv started on Monday evening on eExtra (Openview 105 / DStv 195 / StarSat 489) didn't provide viewers with anything new or different that they're not already getting from one of the existing Afrikaans TV news bulletins on SABC2 or eNCA (DStv 403) but its existence is good and does help to broaden the South Africa TV news and media landscape.

After presumably several dry runs, Monday evening's first broadcast episode of Nuusdag om 8 was a mess of unnecessary and preventable mistakes, including spelling errors that never should (have) happened.

The mistakes damaged the credibility that Nuusdag om 8 wants to have or presumably tried to establish right out of the gate, and made Nuusdag om 8 look amateurish and like a watered-down, dubbed and voice-overed version of e.tv's eNews but one treated with less care.

The Nuusdag om 8 orange-amber-red-yellow toned studio design looks good (although the studio part used for the companion current affairs desk interview sister show following after, Nuusdag Perspektief, looks excellent and is a much better produced show).

"Echebrt Boezak" (Echbert) is by far the most experienced and best presenter who appeared in the show (he is also the TV news bulletin's news editor), while the actress and Mrs Africa Hemisphere, Lorna Greyling as weather presenter comes across as uncomfortable, awkward and ill-suited. She's not right for this type of TV work and is the worst on-air part of Nuusdag om 8.

Nuusdag om 8 spent the first 11 minutes of the TV news bulletin covering local news, then a sprinkling of international wire service footage with voice-overs, some more local stories, as well as weather and sport.

Nuusdag om 8 comes across as not having enough actual people and producers doing the show - with certainty it's clear that absolutely nobody is checking the Afrikaans syntax and spelling of the bottom-screen news scroll and names, or is incompetent or unqualified to do so.

In a Cape Town dam levels story with Suzaan Steyn doing voice-over work, the insert package halfway suddenly switched to English on Nuusdag om 8, revealing that it was originally done in English for eNews with badly done Afrikaans language soundtrack layering that wasn't properly checked by whoever, possibly nobody.

Both Rozanne McKenzie and Echbert Boezak as standing anchors made too many mistakes reading from their scripts and Lorna Greyling is out of her depth and comes across as someone who suddenly got nominated to speak publicly and do announcements at the local church bazaar or when a low-cost carrier flight is delayed but doesn't have the experience, confidence or skill.

Several of the stories had "vox pops" interviews (no problem with that) but then had no actual carry-through with no explanation or indication to the viewer of why the story matters, or what it really means - which is what a TV news bulletin at 20:00 at night should contain after people already consumed the basics of news and the headlines during the day.

It's fine to show angry Westbury protesters at 20:00 emoting on camera, but where's the agenda-setting "next chapter", the explainer, the contextual, expert add-on?

The sport section is good enough but the weather needs an overhaul and looks primary school class "let's do show-and-tell" bad.

The production values of Nuusdag om 8 suffer because of all of this, making it difficult to see the TV news bulletin's relevance or its reason for being.

Openview, e.tv and Nuusdag om 8 did nothing beforehand to tell TV critics or journalists covering TV why it's starting a TV news bulletin or the raison d'être, and it's difficult from merely watching to ascertain why this Afrikaans TV news bulletin is on, what it wants to achieve, why it's at 20:00 specifically and what it's trying to imbue in its content that's different.

Nuusdag om 8 that had a run-up to prepare for launch, had no "exclusive", no story of importance not featured anywhere else for the day, and no "get" or short interview to distinguish itself for its first episode that you'd think it would have worked on beforehand to showcase how it's setting itself apart.

The result is that it seemed the same as eNuus on kykNET and kykNET & kie and the Afrikaans nuus on SABC2, with no difference in its value proposition or the reason it offers as to why viewers should watch it and not one of the other competitors.

Openview's Nuusdag om 8 needs more people to ensure a more tighter, more professionally finished/furnished product, more staffers who have experience and can give proper attention to detail since this is a news product where accuracy and credibility matter, and more reporters doing stories with their own new/unique takes.

While the actual "insides" of Nuusdag om 8 need work, it's mere existence as a programme however adds to the media plurality of the Afrikaans TV news bulletin business in South Africa and is welcomed.

MultiChoice finally shuttering DStv Mobile in South Africa at the end of October as transmitters for DVB-H are turned off.

MultiChoice is finally shuttering its obsolete DStv Mobile service in South Africa at the end of October similar to what it has been doing in Kenya and other African countries recently.

MultiChoice is dumping its DStv DVB-H mobile pay-TV service with the outdated and obsolete DStv Walka and DStv Drifta going dodo.

The DVB-H service - the "H" standing for handset - is getting shut down on 31 October 2018, 11 years after DStv Mobile was launched in 2007 in South Africa.

MultiChoice says when it launched DStv Mobile the technology was new but "over the last few years technology has evolved as broadband access continues to grow. It’s not feasible to continue to maintain a separate land-based, dedicated network for this service alone, when an even better service can be offered to our customers on DStv Now through the internet and WiFi".

MultiChoice already started shutting down transmitters so existing DStv Mobile subscribers who have been paying R49 per month for the service are not guaranteed to still get it until the end of the month with MultiChoice offering them R500 Takealot coupons.

DStv Mobile subscribers are encouraged to dump their obsolete Drifta and Walka devices at MultiChoice branches in Randburg, Durban and Cape Town or at DStv agencies where there are recycling bins.

From Emmanuelle to eNews - e.tv turns 20 years old as South Africa's first (and still only) commercial free-to-air TV channel continues to expand and tackle new challenges.

As it's facing a new set of challenges, e.tv today celebrates a muted 20th anniversary since it launched 1 October 1998, having racked up several achievements and establishing local content brands over the past two decades ranging from Scandal! and Rhythm City to eNews.

Today, 20 years ago, the red letter "be free with e" TV channel, set-up and ran from its Longkloof Studios in Cape Town, made its debut as South Africa's first - and still only - free-to-air commercial TV channel, bringing South Africans more free television content than what was available on the SABC after Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) formed the Midi Consortium and launched e.tv.

Despite struggling in its beginning years and a flurry of reports about the cash-guzzling e.tv's impending demise, e.tv that at the time lost a million rand a day, managed to make a splash, lure viewers and to eventually turn its financials around and become profitable for the first time in 2003.

e.tv that initially broadcast for 6 ours a day from 17:00 to 23:00 until it went 24 hours in 1999, kept expanded its programming, ranging from hits like WWE wrestling to Walker Texas Ranger and Baywatch, to giving Joe Kambule the Phat Joe Show, and Nicky Greenwall's Nightlife (later retiled The Showbiz Report) - to misses like its disastrous first local soap tryout Backstage and its failed and critically panned first morning show attempt, The Toasty Show. 

The channel stole The Oprah Winfrey Show and Felicia Mabusa-Suttle away from the SABC, established Debora Patta and 3rd Degree from 2001 as "no fear, no favour" content and even gave South Africans free-to-air late night erotica in the form of Emmanuelle.  

e.tv turned the Madam and Eve cartoon strip into a local comedy series, and has since continued to grow its local content offering with various drama series and telenovelas, while doing local format adaptations of shows ranging from Fear Factor SA and The Biggest Loser SA to SA's Got Talent.

Local content wise, most notably, over the past two decades e.tv altered the South African TV landscape by introducing and nurturing two now hit local soaps, Scandal! and Rhythm City - both of which are still going strong - and introducing eNews on 17 January 1999 as South Africa's first credible TV news bulletin alternative to the South African public broadcaster.

In fact, the establishment of eNews as a TV news division that spawned the eNews Channel in 2008 and turned into eNCA (that became 10 years old in June), in all probability can be regarded as e.tv's biggest achievement and the biggest positive contribution that e.tv has made to South Africa's media and television landscape.  

While e.tv remains under pressure and the past 2 decades haven't been an easy ride - marked by several restructurings, high-profile executive in-fighting, palace intrigue and oustings, news downsizing, curtailing of e.tv's former African expansion dreams, and the massive and complex challenge of switching to digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTT) without government help - eMedia Investments keeps forging ahead.

e.tv that launched its Openview free-to-air satellite service to carry its set of DTT channels continues to expand and plans to launch OpenNews as a free-to-air TV news channel on 1 November.

e.tv also keeps investing and making an ever-growing number of local programming with moderate success, despite budget constraints.

The channel also managed to normalise its programme offering that was overly dependent on a few ratings-grabbers like wrestling to a more rounded-out schedule that's a better overall blend of American and local shows and films, local and international soaps, its Craze youth strand, and local telenovelas.

kykNET & kie debuts new Cape Flats based Afrikaans telenovela, Arendsvlei; issues-filled high school drama will range from murder and revenge to depression and teen pregnancy.

The new Afrikaans telenovela, Arendsvlei will make its debut tonight at 20:00 on kykNET & kie (DStv 145) with the 156-episode series that has a fictional Cape Flats high school as backdrop and comes front loaded with drama as teachers and pupils confront issues ranging from depression and addiction to homosexuality, murder, revenge and teen pregnancy.

Arendsvlei (Eagles' Valley), filmed in Cape Town and produced by Penguin Films, is the name of the fictional community and the Cape Flats high school where the Cupido family who runs the school tries to make a difference in children's lives.

Arendsvlei, kykNET & kie's first original Afrikaans telenovela, will run for a year and be broadcast from Mondays to Wednesdays at 20:00 until it ends in September 2019, following principal Beatrice (Jolene Martin) who is trying to run the school after her dad's death.

The Arendsvlei cast includes Oscar Petersen (David), Ernest St Clair (Christopher), Maria Valente (Samantha), Jody Abrahams (Lionel), Melanie Du Bois (Ronel), Crystal-Donna Roberts (Janice) and Sherman Pharo (Thys), Dillon Windvogel (Vernon), Gretchen Ramsden (Nicolene), Dean Richard Olivier (Anton), Ann Juries (Claudia), Rehane Abrahams (Wendy), Christian Bennett (Emile), Kay Smith (Debra), Craig Adriaanse (Wesley), Roberto Kyle (Lee-Roy), Celeste Matthews (Aunty Gertie) and Joseph Mitchell in the role of Uncle Johnny.

"Viewers can expect a lot of drama because not everyone in Arendsvlei have good intentions," says Janine Cornelius, supervising producer.

"We have a fantastic cast and viewers can look forward to seeing familiar old faces, but we're also very excited to introduce viewers to new, talented actors, especially the younger characters."

Roberta Durrant, creative producer, says Arendsvlei will offer something for everyone. "The story lines are universal. The telenovela primarily focuses on family. It's the tale of a brother and sister who want to make a difference in the community, but who have their lives irrevocably changed after a shooting incident."

Theltom Masimila, script writer says "the language use is authentically Cape based, very comfortable and belonging to the people whose stories we are telling".

e.tv adds Afrikaans TV news, Nuusdag, and the dubbed Turkish telenovela, Gebroke Harte, to eExtra on Openview.

e.tv is rolling out more Afrikaans content from today in a 2-hour programming block between 19:00 and 21:00 on the eExtra channel in the form of Afrikaans news and a Turkish telenovela dubbed into Afrikaans, before the launch of its new 24-hour TV news channel OpenNews on 1 November.

e.tv will launch its second daily Afrikaans half hour TV news bulletin, Nuusdag om 8, this evening at 20:00 on eExtra (Openview 105 / DStv 195 / StarSat 489) on its Openview free-to-air satellite TV service.

Nuusdag om 8 will be followed by a companion show at 20:30 in the form of a new half hour Afrikaans current affairs show, Nuusdag Perspektief.

Nuusdag Perspektief will do interviews with newsmakers and discuss big news stories and issues.

The 20:00 Afrikaans news and current affairs block will be preceded by the hour long Gebroke Harte, a Turkish telenovela dubbed into Afrikaans that will be broadcast on weekdays on eExtra.

Nuusdag om 8
The veteran broadcaster and sports journalist Echbert Boezak has been appointed as Nuusdag news editor who will also do sports reporting.

Nuusdag om 8 will be anchored by Rozanne McKenzie previously from kykNET's Kwêla, Flits! and Nasie in Gesprek, along with the former SABC2 Afrikaans TV news anchor Suzaan Steyn, and the former Pasella presenter Charlene Lackay.

The actress and Mrs Africa Hemisphere, Lorna Greyling will be the Nuusdag om 8 weather presenter.

Nuusdag with its studio done in amber and red tones will not just compete with SABC2's Afrikaans TV news bulletin at 18:30 but also itself - eNuus on kykNET (DStv 144) and kykNET & kie (DStv 145) at 19:00 that is produced for M-Net's Afrikaans TV channels on DStv by eMedia Investments that is also responsible for Nuusdag.

To differentiate from the heavy Johannesburg news bubble of other shows - although the Nuusdag om 8 studio is located in Johannesburg similar to the others - the TV news bulletin will add, beyond a look at international and national South African news, a flavouring of regional reports from some South African provinces, done from Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and the Northern Cape.

Reporters like Craig-Lee Smith from EWN, Sue Pyler from RSG, Elvin Presslin and others have joined Nuusdag.

"We are committed to producing an independent Afrikaans TV news bulletin that South Africans can really trust," says Marlon Davids, managing director of e.tv channels. "We have put together a very talented and experienced team of reporters, producers and anchors and have no doubt that Nuusdag om 8 will keep our Afrikaans-speaking viewers informed".

Gebroke Harte
At 19:00 from today on weekdays, eExtra will play out Gebroke Harte, an Afrikaans dub of the Turkish telenovela, Paramparça (Broken Pieces in English) produced by Endemol Shine Turkey.

Unknown to them, two women Gülseren and Dilara, have had their babies accidentally switched at birth and .

Gülseren (poor) lives with her "daughter" Hazal, and Dilara (rich) lives with her "daughter" Cansu - and then their paths meet again.

South African actors like Carmen Maarman, Marcelle van Heerden, Desiré Gardner and Abdu Adams are part of the voice cast. Gebroke Harte is the first prime-time drama series to be dubbed into Afrikaans in 20 years.

Gebroke Harte will have an omnibus broadcast on eExtra on Sundays at 14:00.