TopTV was a South African pay-tv platform operated by On Digital Media which served as a rival to MultiChoice's DStv. It promised to offer consumers affordable price rates by letting them pay for a selection of entertainment something not seen on DStv.
Variety was available across every price plan for R99p/m which was home to free-to-air channels SABC 1-3 and e.tv alongside other entertainment ranging from sports like Eurosport News and Senata Sports and news from BBC News and Al Jazeera.
These consumers were given an option between Kiss and JimJam from Kids & Music, Discovery Science and FOX Retro from Entertainment & Knowledge, and Showtime and FX from Ultimate Movies.
During its span, TopTV was able to lure at least 300,000 subscribers and got a lot of media coverage. Similar to StarSat, there was a lack of communication with the media over the inclusion of content and TV channels.
Similar to the likes of eMedia Investments, TopTV came with their own branded TV channels such as Top One (general entertainment), Top History (factual), Top Junior (kids) and Top Movies. Most of which were scrapped following the pay-tv company's money woes.
Change in ownership/help from DStv
In 2012, TopTV had gone into business rescue under Companies Act behind on debt and in need of cash needed help from another party which most were eyeing to be South African.
In 2013, Dynamic TV was the only bidder based in South Africa that was looking to acquire TopTV. It was formed by Given Mkhari's MSG Afrika and Malose Kekana's Falk Trading who had gotten "financial help" from MultiChoice to acquire the pay-tv company.
It's likely that TopTV could have merged with DStv or rebranded to GOtv as MultiChoice were open to pumping out close to R370 million a year. Other suitors included Zuku TV's owners Wananchi Group meaning they wouldn't have been exclusive to West Africa.
StarTimes was only successful to acquire TopTV as Dynamic TV and Wananchi Group failed to make their offers on time. Shareholders were desperate for a possible deal and reviewed StarTimes offer before making them their new business partner.
More battles ahead
News of StarTimes takeover of TopTV was met with poor reception from workers who feared the overloading of "poor Chinese content". A few shareholders within ODM had taken StarTimes to court regarding its takeover of the TopTV trademark.
Amidst this StarTimes was looking to unveil the new packages and TV channels set to be rolled out on StarSat. Despite the outcome of the court, StarTimes was able to exercise their 65% hold of the company and unveil the new packages and TV channels to debut.
This garnered a lot of media coverage after reports surfaced of porn being part of this lineup which had heavily been bombarded on TopTV. This consisted of Desire TV, Playboy TV and Private Spice all of which are available at an additional charge.
ICASA saw no problem with the inclusion of porn as it didn't form part of StarSat's other offering with the other pertaining to the broadcast times 20:00 viewed by adults. Other parties such as the Doctors For Life had filed lawsuits with various other law enforcement.
StarSat was forced to pull these channels by 2014 (with license revoked) and they resurfaced sometime later. The Justice Alliance of SA (Jasa) was looking to fine the broadcaster R60,000 but ICASA reduced it to R25,000 as they broadcast without approval.
Conclusion: TopTV's demise could have been prevented
TopTV was poorly structured during its run despite housing premium entertainment brands like FX and Showtime. They offered a chunk of add-ons part of which likely went unnoticed by viewers as they continued pumping gas in the fuel tank.
StarTimes had identified these flaws and opted to restructure the packages in a similar form to those viewed in Africa and seen on MultiChoice's DStv. They paid up various debts TopTV owed to various companies and retained part of its offering.
TopTV had about 300,000 subscribers before migrating to StarSat and when you look at it they could have minimized their offering. They were moving very quickly to edge out MultiChoice knowing how little consumption numbers were at the time.
MultiChoice by this period had at least 3 million DStv customers within South Africa.
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