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Television is migrating from analog to digital, and this presents interesting opportunities for viewers amidst the pending options from the newly licensed  satellite operators.  All channels of the republic are now going to be available on a new free-to-air platform namely "Digital Terrestrial Television"

Here we go....

You have invested money in purchasing your Digital Satellite Television (Dstv) decoder to subscribe to any of the services now available including Premium, Select, Easy View and Indian packages to say the least. On the other hand you are busy trying to prepare your budget to either switch to any of the new subscription satellite service providers or stay with Dstv. You are now presented with yet another option through the introduction of Digital Terrestrial  Television.

What most of you don’t know is that part of the reason Sentech pulled out of the subscription license race, days before the licenses where announced, without giving any solid reason, is because they knew that through digital television they stand to achieve the very same objectives they had proposed on their application. Their application was based on providing a service for the mass. FOR THE PEOPLE! Amadla! Hehehehehe. Sorry I could not help myself!

The licenses where announced and some celebrated thinking that a new much needed change was just months away, as consumers will have a choice in their satellite service providers. Whilst others were ecstatic at the prospects of having a piece of the billions Dstv earns from their service. The truth is that reality bites and it bites hard and with some force. It is very difficult for anyone to start a competitive service to Dstv. Unfortunately for the new licensees, the public is using Dstv as a benchmark to bounce off what they have to offer. Dstv then shows the 18 applications how good it can play the game. During the application process it lives up to my very first blog, ( if you did not read it, CLICK HERE ),  by entering into a contract with Vodacom to sub-license its brand and content to launch Dstv Select.

Just as the new competitor wannabes, try to wrestle with that idea, ICASA announces winners and within weeks of announcement, Dstv introduces the much talked about service which Multichoice was not interested in rolling out. They launch Dstv Easy View for poor people. Amandla!..... hahahaha.

Everyone knew that this act of business savvy by Multichoice was going to be an uphill for any competitor to try and challenge, but like hopeless cases, they felt something could be done. You now have a situation where the public has four packages to choose from.

ODM and Telkom Media said earlier this year that they would launch by mid-2009. That was before Telkom pulled out from Telkom Media together with their billions. Telkom Media is running around like a headless cow, trying to snag an investor. Many people saw Telkom Media and ODM , but more Telkom Media than ODM, to be a viable opponent to Dstv since they had their deep pocket investor “Telkom” to finance their inexperience and failures in a sector where money can be lost very easily. Ask ETV if you want to know more!.

The most painful of the Telkom Media saga is that they had already started pouching executives and talent from the industry not to mention issuing briefs for new shows. Ouch! That hurts…. Imagine having to cal your old boss and tell him “remember all those things I said to you when I resigned, I take them back. Can you please.....please give me my job back?”

Reports started coming in about ODM shareholders being linked (old friends) to Naspers shareholders and insinuating that ODM may survive purely from an old school stand point. I would not be surprised if Naspers bought ODM, that is if it ever find ground. When one addresses the issue of ODM’s offer to the public “their service”, we then realize that they are quite similar to Dstv but the difference is that they are selling a much publicized “you choose your own channels” proposition. Not to mention their unrealistic pricing models. One wonders what channels they have. Let’s face it, Dstv can decide to launch Dstv Choice, where you choose from any of the 70+ Dstv channels to create your own entertainment package.

Multi-choice can implement that type of service as soon as next week if they wanted to. So, I’d rather they  (ODM) launch and let see what they have to offer. As for ETV and ENEWS, that was a complete waist of ICASA’s time and ours in the process. ETV could have very well gone to ICASA and told them that they would like to launch a news channel on satellite and they would still have gotten a license to launch, just as SABC launched two channels of Dstv - SABC Africa being one of them. Wowtv, the Christian subscription service, has recently announced that they will be launching in 2009 with four channels. And here I thought they were given license for a single channel.

The point is not what these satellite licensees are doing, but rather the underlying disaster which is in the works, as a result of the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television. Most of these new licensees are going to tank because of the very revolution that is Digital Terrrestrial TV. Let us not forget that SABC and SENTECH had a joint venture for a satellite subscription service for the mass. I would say amandla, but I think we all get the picture.....once more, just one last time.... Amandla! Hahahahahah. In fact their service was aimed at low income households. Are we catching on?

SABC tried to introduce SABC Sports channels on Dstv and Multichoice refused to carry the channel. Everyone who has proposed a channel to Dstv knows that anything that is similar to what Dstv has on offer will not be considered. SABC tried their luck and it did not work out. Are we holding grudge? The subscription application presented an opportunity for SABC to rollout their own news and sports channels and why would they want to abandon that? Moreover their partnership with Sentech seemed perfect – technology + content? Wow…. talk about a union of idiots!

Let’s review shall we:



Are those channels going to be licensed? Possibly not, Sentech would probably be in charge of allocating channel space on the digital landscape. This may mean that you might end up watching CNN, MTV, BET, National Geographic, etc on digital terrestrial television (DTT). Once more, for those who have not yet secured the rights for these channels on digital terrestrial platforms… you may need to get up and do something because Dstv has exclusive rights for satellite within the territory and they are probably trying to change their contracts to accommodate digital terrestrial.


The question is, what happens to the very companies ICASA gave permission to broadcast satellite subscription services? Note that those companies must invest in their own infrastructure, yet government is giving Sentech billions to setup this digital television service. The same Sentech that has been holding on to Vivid "their satellite decoder which also carries SABC News Intrnational and CNBC Africa". They failed at Vivd and thier wireless broadnand service. I wonder how they are going to fail at DTT?.... Stay with me as I point out more issues.


Lets do some maths for a second here, if one free to air analog channel can provide x8 digital channels and we have x4 analog channels excluding Mnet because its pay-tv; that gives us = 32 channels with 28 new digital channels in total. If we add Mnet for the fun of it, that gives us 35 potential channels.

Already at the launch of DTT, SABC showcased two new SABC channels - SABC Entertainment and SABC International News. I am sure that what comes next is “SABC Sport 1- &-2, SABC Education, SABC Religion, YO-TV, and The Learning Channel” all of which all current brands of SABC. And the introduction of the much awaited SABC 4 and SABC3 already licensed or provinces.


Think about this, when Sentech is responsible for rolling out the digital terrestrial television service which offers more free channels to the ones we currently have (SABC1, 2, 3 and ETV – I will leave out Mnet, as mentioned above). Whilst the same government makes it a national priority to ensure that every single household has a STB "decoder" in order get access to the digital terrestrial signal and enjoy a mass of channels to be offered by the new technology. Where does it leave those poor licensees who have to turn their licenses into actual businesses?



How on earth are you supposed to consider satellite an option when you can watch a slew of channels on your government subsidized decoder with no cost for a dish, since the technology uses the same principles of over the air broadcast where you don’t need a dish? This is a calculated onslaught by our devoted government. When you look at it from another angle, its just great because more people will enjoy what has been an exclusive commodity to most.

Dstv uses a satellite dish to receive the signal and the DTT STB “set top box” or the decoder as known by most, uses a standard aerial to receive the signal. Further more the purchase of the set top box is a once-off cost. There are no monthly subscription costs to receive the free-to air services offered by Digital Television. So all those prospective channels…. ARE ALL FREE!

When you think that over 60% of Dstv channels are advertiser supported by origin, or basic channels as they are known in markets such as the US. What this means is that those channels are supposed to earn their revenue mainly from advertising.

A potential terrestrial audience on digital at no recurring cost to consumer vs a satellite audience at a recurring cost to consumer….. I don’t know! What do you think?

Even if it’s free, you have a whole lot of more rubbish to hopefully choose from. Maybe Dstv will come up with some interesting offer. I suspect they may choose to run DTT signals of their Mnet brand channels such Mnet Series, Channel O, Go, Kyknet etc purely to cash in on the potential audience, DTT has on offer. They felt the pinch when Open Time migrated to Closed Time. So they know the potencial revenue they can generate on a mass platform.

Meanwhile, the new satellite operators are bound to loose money and if they don’t, they will have very few people subscribing to their new services. The most frustrating of all is that you have to get the DTT decoder even when you have Dstv’s decoder. This is after the satellite licensees tried to negotiate for use of single decoder for all their services. I personally knew that there was no way Dstv was going to allow that to happen, not on their decoder. Now we have to deal with issue of synching our DTT and Dstv, what a mess.


This technology offers great opportunities, basically what you see on Dstv will be free to all South Africans in terms of the possibilities of this technology. You can watch content on HD (High Definition), have Interactive applications as well as On-Demand channels for movies, etc. We may also see the introduction of pay per view services. I believe a fight is probably going to begin over content.

The greatest opportunity would be for provinces. They need to allocate powers to local provinces to issue channels for their own local language groups and populations. For example, in Limpopo they could have either two or four channels dedicated to serving Afrikaans, Pedi, Tsonga and Venda speaking populations. They will be classified as local commercial channels not community channels. They would be commercial in their interest and will serve select markets within the province by providing local news and entertainment which affect their own provincial economies and matters. This means that a channel in Giyani for instance can buy rights to The Oprah Show and broadcast it to own audience on their local channel because they will make money from advertising. Subject to rights issued being ironed out by ICASA. Since they are commercial, they could enter into content deals which enable them to be successful. This is a model that has worked very well for marks such as the US, where people in New York city have their own local commercial channels and the same in Chicago, however the likes of ABC, CBS, FOX are networks. This means they provide a block of content nationally to networked local commercial channels that are contracted to these network broadcasters and thus carry a FOX or ABC brand identity.


Digital presents opportunities, problems and a great future in the world of television for South Africa. Advertising will have more choice, just as viewers will also enjoy a variety of content. Continental broadcasters such as MTV and E! to name a few have been proactive in looking at new technologies and how they could better localize their services. Perhaps we will see the launch of MTV South Africa on digital after all. We should remember that digital is the new free-to-air, so any channel on this platform will be available to all South African households unlike Dstv or satellite television. To make it even worse… its free. So those new satellite operators are in for some serious issues and problems.

By The Observer

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