Recap To The Week: OUTtv And FUSE Are Coming Off Openview's Ultraview, Moving To eVOD

During the week, it was reported eMedia Investigation would be axing OUTtv by the end of the month. As further content fold under the eVOD streaming service, while Ultraview came with a fee content from OUTtv comes at no charge.

Of course, this brought out a lot of unanswered questions for which we enquired to eMedia's teams and only got a response a short a while ago. This pertains to the rest of Ultraview's offering particularly EDGE since it only consisted of two channels.

According to a representative, FUSE will also be disconnected on the 30th April 2024. Similar to OUTtv, plans are underway to get FUSE on eVOD meaning Ultraview as some viewers predicted is a complete bust leaving consumers with the Indian channels.

For those who aren't aware, OUTtv Proud is a joint venture between OUTtv and FUSE. If eMedia Investments is saying FUSE will be added soon expect it to fold under OUTtv Proud which we presume is crowded with programming from OUTtv at the moment.

Similar to eMedia Investments, MultiChoice will also be two additional channels from their platform, WildEarth and Africa Magic Urban. This would serve as one of the many channels to have exited their platform in the last months without a replacement. 

Openview Consumers Are Not Willing To Switch To Ultraview

During the week, eMedia Investments unveiled Pride the first of several pay-tv offerings currently bundled under Openview Ultra (also known as Ultraview) joining rivals such as MultiChoice's DStv and On Digital Media alongside StarTimes' StarSat platform.

Pride comes with two dedicated general entertainment brands FUSE and OUTtv currently priced at R74.99 per month. Both of which cater to the LGBTQ community with eMedia Investments promising to add more channels overtime to the Ultraview bouquet.

Compared to most other pay-tv platforms, Ultraview comes as an unbundled outlet similar to DStv AddMovies and while MultiChoice has yet to launch a similar offering DStv Flex this was the result to the outcome of letting consumers choose what to pay for.

Since news of Ultraview came out in 2022, several Openview consumers were skeptical about the idea some feeling like second rate as seen with some DStv consumers while others thought it would follow a similar format to the mentioned platform.

A survey was conducted across social platforms about Openview Ultra and consumers in general aren't willing to cough up the dough with some comparing to the likes of DStv and others aren't satisfied with the current setup of the platform.

But from what I've seen through all this is that Openview Ultra caters to another level of consumers and most of them reside within cable platforms such as DStv or OTT platforms like Netflix and Disney+.

Honestly, Openview Ultra isn't aligned to most of the products currently bundled under eMedia Investments which include linear channels such as e.tv, eExtra and eToonz as well as digital platforms like eVOD but serves more as a standalone to the portfolio.

So I'm not gonna take consumer's concerns to account when looking at the potential outcome of Openview Ultra. For all we know, this could do well on their part as there's consumers out there who wanted this offering on DStv but MultiChoice backed out.

I am not going to say Openview Ultra is the best thing that has happened since DStv but if this formula succeeds it might encourage competitors to rollout a similar offering as seen last year when kykNET rolled out it's first competitor for eExtra's Kuiertyd offering.

New Channel Alert (Rumour): OUTtv + FUSE + Zee Family + Star Select Coming Soon Exclusively To Openview Ultra

eMedia Investments is prepping up the pay-tv version to the current Openview platform and from what is seen these past weeks I wouldn't be shocked if it was unveiled before the end of the month and before we get to the four channels, here's what you should know.

For those using Openview, there was 4 test channels and from what was seen through those lab experiments were SABC 2, SABC 3, Zee TV and Colors TV and as predicted these were just placeholder channels for the final product which turns out to be OUTtv, FUSE, Zee Family and Star Select.

OUTtv is a general entertainment channel owned by OUTtv Media Global Inc. which is meant to promote the LGBTQ community with drama series, reality shows, movies and documentaries. Some of the content include Absolutely Fabulous, Call Me Mother and Brideshead Revisited.

It was launched as a pop-up channel on DStv back in 2018 unfortunately MultiChoice opted not to have a 24 hour channel but rather to bundle it with Showmax and with this news I wouldn't be shocked if they tried prepping up a similar offering.

eMedia Investments:
- Ultraview Pride and Ultraview Indian coming soon to Openview
- More Bollywood coming soon to Openview Ultra
- More e.tv coming soon to DStv customers
- Could SABC be unveiling another two channels for Openview Ultra?
- Glow TV to stop airing on the Openview platform from next month
- Could Openview+ lead to 24 hour capability of these channels?

FUSE owned by FUSE Media LLC from what I can gather is a music and lifestyle channel similar to OUTtv it celebrates the LGBTQ community with shows like Made From Scratch, Sex Sells, We Need to Talk About America and Stay True.

The other two remain as much of a mystery to me but here's my hunch about both brands.

Zee Family is a general entertainment channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises while as Zee World and Zee One rely heavily on soaps to keep their lineup afloat this channel will incorporate that and explore other aspects of India including reality, lifestyle, kids movies and doccies.

Star Select is a general entertainment channel owned by Disney Star likely serving as a competitor to Zee Family with a similar offering while as serving as an expansion to the current Star Life channel.

As to whether these channels are dubbed in English that is unknown but I'm expecting them to be Hindi with English subtitles. Makes sense as we don't want to burn off so much money.

As for the pricing you may want to sit down when reading this, remember when Openview Ultra was first announced as Openview+ with a price tag R150 well that's not the case with revamped package.

Apparently, Openview Ultra has priced these channels under two tags Ultraview Pride which is R75p/m with Ultraview Indian being priced at R119p/m together that takes you to R194p/m almost R200p/m for just 4 channels.

Take to account, Openview Ultra is just a newbie to the market and overtime we will see more entertainment. For those who've been followed DStv for a while would understand that pricing is not determined by quantity but quality which is the case right here.

MultiChoice's premium package for starters almost priced at R900p/m has most funds going onto M-Net and SuperSport and with Openview Ultra I believe people will have a better understanding as to how MultiChoice actually prices their packages.