Fifty seven channels and nothing on
So it seems the broadcasting arena is finally going to be widened, following the announcement that the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has awarded licences to four new entrants into the pay-TV sector.
The new entrants – On Digital Media (ODM), Telkom Media and e.tv sister company e.sat, as well as single-channel Christian niche broadcaster Walking on Water – will join the incumbent operator, Multichoice in providing hideously overpriced programmes to the South African public.
While analysts are warning that the local market will not be able to sustain all four new entrants, and even ODM’s business development manager, Laurent Petit has not ruled out consolidation in the future, the new players seem confident that there is room enough for all of them to be profitable.
Well, if they charge similar rates to Multichoice, there is no doubt they might be profitable, but I fear that their optimism is much like that of Cell C and NeoTel in the telecoms space, who expected to be able to challenge the incumbents until the Department of Communications (DoC) cocked around with the licensing procedures for years before eventually awarding them – long after the window of opportunity had slammed shut.
ODM’s biggest selling point is that the consumer only pays for the channels they want, which means that their content had better be extremely good, otherwise they will fall flat on their collective faces. (Can you imagine if Multichoice used such a method: most of us would pay for a few sports channels, possibly the History channel and if we had kids, maybe Cartoon Network, and that would be it!)
Still, at least the pay channels should have better content than the SABC, which is currently arguing that it should only have to provide its channels to the pay-TV licensees on condition it is paid for them, claiming that otherwise it would effectively be providing content to its competition, free of charge.
Considering the utter drivel served up by the ANC mouthpiece that masquerades as the state broadcaster, I have a hard time believing that anyone should be charged money for their poor attempts at programming – although, of course, we ALL pay for it, since we are forced to pay a TV licence, even if we never ever watch the rubbish served up by Dali and Snuki.
What I did find most interesting to note, however, was that during the arguments around payment for the programming supplied by the SABC to Multichoice, both operators acknowledged that local content is more expensive than international programming.
So what they are saying (presuming the rand/dollar exchange rate has been taken into account) is it costs them more than seven times as much to screen programmes like ‘Jozi H’ and Jacob’s Cross’ than it does to flight ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Heroes’ – am I the only one who fails to see how utterly ridiculous this situation is?
Although perhaps if the SABC could get its licensing records sorted out properly, so that it could stop trying to sue those who actually do pay their TV licence fee and instead channelled proper efforts into catching those who do not, they could afford to pay for more of this exorbitantly overpriced local content.
What was quite funny was when ICASA chairman Paris Mashile said that the regulator aims to liberalise the sector and ensure broadcasting services are provided for a diverse range of communities in SA, failing to add that since the licences are for pay-TV, these services will only be provided as long as the diverse communities can afford to stump up enough cash to pay for them.
The aim, he said, is to “ensure broadcasting services are provided for a diverse range of communities in SA; promote empowerment of historically-disadvantaged persons and ensure broad-based black economic empowerment; address poverty alleviation; encourage economic growth and investment; develop programmes to address the dual economy; ensure job creation; liberalise the sector; ensure access and affordability of services; and guarantee a higher and wider customer satisfaction index.”
So he obviously doesn’t have dish himself, otherwise he would be aware that the only satisfaction most of us customers get is in just how accurately Bruce Springsteen described things when he wrote: “There’s 57 channels and nothing on”…
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