BBC UKTV made its free-to-air on MultiChoice's DStv during the week and was initially slated for the Openview platform in October unfortunately that never came to fruition with BBC Studios refusing to comment any further on the matter.
I have no doubt that BBC UKTV will launch on the Openview platform as stated by both parties at the time they were still finalising some details not sure what that means exactly.
But as of this moment, consumers will behind on several shows such as My Family, Casualty and Top Gear from BBC Brit, Come Dine With Me from BBC Lifestyle, Wild Africa and Planet Earth from BBC Earth and Yakka Dee and Andy's Wild Adventures from CBeebies.
To add onto that note, eMedia Investments has begun doing a test run on Openview+ which serves as a pay version to the current Openview platform that won't be made available for viewing until the fall of 2023.
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
eMedia Investments 4 channels currently supplied to the DStv platform were scrapped during the year and their future on the pay-tv giant remains uncertain. So this is probably their way of not trying not to rely so much on the pay-tv giant for their survival.
And the fact that analogue is being wiped out by March 2023 which puts a dent in their money bin so at this point it's all about survival.
eVOD has seen plenty of success since it's rollout and it could have been what led them to revisit the pay-tv endeavours.
Openview+ was in the pipeline decades ago just without name and had several eMedia produced channels in the works and just like SABC's initial DTT plans that too was killed off or restructured and with its launch more imminent they're likely to revisit those options.
eMedia at the time felt the market was big enough for only two pay-tv platforms to which one had already sank while the other is trying to save the remaining passengers and hopefully lure more people into the Titanic.
Now the only thing that we knew so far about Openview+ was it's starter up of R150 which to me seems a bit much for a newbie I mean DStv Access costs far less and has over 40 channels and the current Openview platform has less than 25 channels.
Openview:
- MultiChoice to rollout delayed Openview channel
- Openview to come with monthly fees by next year
- Could Openview be losing more channels in future?
- SABC 1 title card has been registered for customers
- MultiChoice attempting to replicate eExtra's Kuiertyd with kykNET
- eMovies and eMovies Extra receive their first competitors on DStv Easyview
But eMedia has been dishing out some very interesting channels such as eXposed, The Home Channel+ and soon BBC UKTV so I'm just saying is it possible that Openview+ just like DStv Premium is quality over quantity.
To be frank, DStv Premium has over 120 channels of which less than 20 channels probably even less than that are available on an exclusive basis and most of the money goes onto M-Net and the existing lineup of content on SuperSport which is less than half of that number.
Honestly, a service like Openview+ will need some time prepping up but from what was seen later in the week I wouldn't be surprised if my theory came to fruition or at least initially.
As mentioned above, eMedia Investments had begun doing some test runs on Openview+ under the banner Ultraview which by my guess is a more advanced version of the latest model of the Openview platform.
They did announce another new decoder would be rolling out soon probably with more features. MultiChoice did something similar already where you had the DStv Explora and few years later you got more premium version, DStv Explora Ultra.
Openview:
- Alternatives to News And Sport Channel
- BYUTV - another alternative to eToonz
- Why Openview competitor is a free-to-view Netflix?
- Openview to come with monthly fees
- Glow TV to be replaced by eBolly (prediction)
- DMAX rolls out in the African market (prediction)
This Ultraview service has begun testing out two channels not really giving details as to what they're about but there is the matter of SABC's two yet to be launched channels and now BBC UKTV. I mean is it possible perhaps one of them will become an Openview+ exclusive.
Depending on when these channels actually launch, I'm not expecting them to place it on a paywall or at least not SABC for that matter. My hunch is that these two will probably be a premium version to the current e.tv and eExtra channels.
While as most of the content on eVOD will usually take up a year or so to be made available on eMedia's set of channels with the first channel I'm expecting it to take the M-Net approach and wait a few weeks or even do simultaneous airings. Even offer series like Seal Team and NCIS.
The second channel would be a telenovela channel sort of a spinoff to eExtra as eMedia has grown quite attached to this type of content. Of course, it would explore Latin America, Europe and parts of Asia and even crossover with the current eExtra channel.
Honestly, I'm not that much of a fan of the format seen on e.tv and the guilty pleasure lineup on eExtra. These channels kind of like what Zee World and Zee One may be rivals to some extent but these two are able to balance each other which is what I'm expecting for these two.
