Back in the early 2000s SABC and e.tv had plans to launch their own STB which included more channels from these rivals and also more choice in what to watch.
SABC DTT plans started out with 18 channels you had: SABC 1-3, SABC 4, SABC 5, SABC Sports, SABC Movies, SABC Education, SABC News, a children's channel, a SMME channel, a health channel, a parliamentary channel, a music channel, a history channel and timeshift channels (1 show air an hour later).
While e.tv envisioned having 18 channels and never stated how many of these channels will be supplied by them.
Even though only 2 managed to materialize with 1 still on a test phase, SABC was likely to go bankrupt with all these channels in place even if pay platforms were to carry parts of these channels it wouldn't do much to keep all of them since they're likely to waste a fortune trying to build content for these channels.
Back in 2013/4, SABC former CEO Hlaudi implemented a 90% quota on their channels which led to a decrease in viewership particularly on SABC 3 and a loss of income. Due to this local quota most companies severed ties with the station even Disney was part of the back giving SABC access to 10% of the content with e.tv gaining the rest of it. They tried reducing the quota to 80% but that didn't work out for them.
Now imagine if that quota never existed and SABC managed to get all 18 channels running. The problem here would be the amount of money they'll waste on local content. It's proven to be challenging for the SABC to supply local programming on 3 channels imagine doing that with 18 channels especially if you don't charge monthly fees and most of your viewers don't pay TV licence.
e.tv also had plans to grow their channel lineup. They started with eMovies+, eToonz+, eAfrica+ and eKasi+ so far only the first two survived with newcomers eExtra, eReality, News&Sports and Rewind. Back then they had OpenView and their main concern was quantity so they added a bunch of crappy channels and hoped viewers would be glued to their screens that was not until 2017 came that they were more concerned about entertainment which led to decrease of channels in order to give better programming. Along the way they were struggling to make some doe and the viewership was weak so they added some of their channels on DStv for more income and viewership.
Since then, OpenView has managed to get their platform in 2 million homes and it famous in neighbouring countries that people there are using it illegally in order to avoid the entertainment available in their countries. It has become a charity case but this is to ensure that viewers get more entertainment on the platform.
If SABC got 18 of these channels running by now they would have scrapped a couple of them like SABC 4 & 5, children, SMME, movies and music which would bring them to a total of 10 channels. Even though they rely on funding and partnerships, those partnerships are likely to dissolve and those funders are likely going to take their money elsewhere. In the end, SABC new proposed channels are just the useful and not entertaining batch of channels which include education, sports, health, parliamentary and if possible history running which shows that they're trying to the PBS of South Africa. They're struggling to keep viewers glued to their screens so they want channels that other people will see useful in their everyday lives.
SABC Sports might be used to get new faces in sports another use for the channel is to help minimise disruption of sports on the main channels, Parliamentary might be the toughest one for them since it's not another channel for recycled goods, Health and if possible History will curved through partnerships since there's less content in these fields while archived Education channel is just a reruns channel in partnership with the department of education.
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