Yesterday, eMedia Investments revealed in their annual financial results that it secured a five-year extension with MultiChoice to carry eNCA on DStv. It also sold exclusive rights to carry its flagship news channel, blocking its own platforms like Openview from carrying it.
eMedia said it maintained its prime-time audience market share of 34.5% across E-tv, Openview, and eNCA — up slightly from 34.1% on March 2022. E-tv’s prime-time market share dropped back to.21.4% after increasing from 21.8% in 2021 to 23.7% last year.
eNCA is the most-watched news channel in South Africa among the nation’s wealthiest demographic and the second most-watched news channel among “All Adults”. This is despite the channel not being offered on all DStv packages, whereas its competition is, eMedia said.
Last year, the company was embroiled in a carriage battle with the pay-tv company for their 4 channels: eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra. Since August 2022, the channel remained onboard on the platform following pending investigation.
Of course, eMedia Investments remained silent at the time of publication so we assume these channels might as well be a gonner as MultiChoice isn't looking to carry these channels full-time while eMedia Investments hopes to see them continue on the platform.
As for eNCA, we can only assume that the only way you can get this on Openview is through the pay tier, Ultraview. But majority of Openview consumers can't afford or aren't willing to pay for the the bouquet with some comparing it to the likes of DStv.