Hang onto your bathongs! because you're going to need them.
The broadcast war between MultiChoice and the SABC took on epic proportions this week when their spat hit soapieville like the death of a favourite character.
SABC has pulled all of the pubcaster's soapies from the DStv Stream Catch Up service. Uzalo, Muvhango, Skeem Saam, Generations: The Legacy, 7de Laan - gone!
This is what you see when you try to watch any of them on DStv Stream:
As you'll notice from the "Platforms Affected" insert, they're no longer available on Catch Up on any device, including PVRs.
Where have they gone? To SABC's streaming service SABC+ of course.
They're also on Viu, behind a gazillion adverts and some with a Premium paywall so it'll be interesting to see how long they last there.
Clearly the SABC's on a mission to keep them as exclusive as possible and to be honest, they're better on SABC+.
Every episode has the original broadcast date with them, which wasn't on DStv Stream, and shows such as Uzalo stream in better quality.
We were actually on the brink of doing an article about the marked difference in Uzalo between the two platforms which was emphasised when you watched the closing credits on each. You could hardly read the names on DStv Stream and yet they're crisp and clear on SABC+:
On DStv Stream
On SABC+
This dramatic move by the SABC comes in the wake of the Rugby World Cup fisticuff that erupted before the tournament began.
How it ended: MultiChoice agreed to sub-licence 16 of the matches to the SABC BUT
not on the SABC channels on OpenView, meaning South Africans who only have OpenView can't watch them. They've been saddled with other, less relevant sports content instead.
How it's going: SABC isn't allowing MultiChoice to stream their soapies.
Where it's headed: handbag smackdowns, stiletto heels in eyes and shards of glass in shoes.