Earlier in the year, MultiChoice attempted to scrap eMedia's 4 channels eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra currently packaged on the DStv platform which has proven to be unsuccessful as court rulings led to keep the channels for the remainder of 2022.
As some are already aware, MultiChoice had sort out several alternatives such as Movie Room and DreamWorks on top of building their offering through some of the existing brands residing on their platforms.
It's too soon to tell how consumers would react the moment these 4 channels eventually exit the pay-tv regime or in this case for MultiChoice as we got Openview+ rolling out in the coming year and as mentioned the necessary alternatives have been made available to DStv consumers.
eMedia Investments:
- Prediction: eToonz to get an additional channel
- Could Openview+ lead to 24 hour capability of these channels?
- eToonz schedule explained
- Housewives has been scrapped from e.tv's lineup
- eMedia's 4 channels to go dark on DStv
- Charlize Theron opinion over the Afrikaans language
But what I like to point out is the SABC, there was no media scrutiny around the public broadcaster as they do play a part in all this. An associate of MultiChoice had mentioned that 3 yet to be announced channels would make up for these channels.
Take into account, ICASA had put up a new ruling granting the public broadcaster rights to fund their 3 most watched and accessible channels in South Africa to pay-tv platforms for which they couldn't come to an agreement as yet following pending issues for which they plan to address publicly.
I don't want to give actual figures but what I can add is that the SABC and eMedia Investments had their part of the pie on DStv for which MultiChoice cutback for one party in order to compensate for the other for which the remaining party demands more despite already having a huge chunk of the pie.
SABC:
- SABC Movies: another scrapped channel by the public broadcaster
- Why Openview has been excluded from supposed SABC channel?
- Prediction: Mindset TV to be taken over by the SABC
- Prediction: Parliament TV to be taken over by the SABC
- TelkomOne transitions into SABC+ (review)
- SABC Children seemingly enters post production
Unlike eMedia Investments, the public broadcaster has a lot of original productions in the pipeline I'm not saying it's great as there's plenty of crap that isn't worth exploring but when you look at from a pay-tv perspective you can clearly see why SABC is a viable option.
eMedia can have Hawaii Five-O, Bob The Builder and Godzilla on for the 100th time all of which can be seen on various channels already residing on DStv while the SABC compliments that with Uzalo, Takalani Sesame and One Day Leader.
I'm not saying eMedia does a terrible job in selecting their content but it's something that is of no value to a operator like MultiChoice perhaps on a platform like Openview as there's not much alternatives to the above-mentioned content.
DStv:
- Could Russia Today be removed from the DStv platform?
- Qwest TV coming soon to Showmax
- fliekNET to make a comeback this festive season
- Why DStv Premium customers might lose out on a certain new channel?
- eMedia's 4 channels to go dark on the DStv platform
- VH1 making a comeback on DStv
MultiChoice turns to the SABC in the hopes that they'll be able diversify their offering and limit the amount of repetition already viewable on the platform. When most already know that the channels will do exactly that with their own offering
