New players raise concern over channels
New pay TV licensees On Digital Media (ODM) and Telkom Media have requested that they be allocated channels on the digital terrestrial platform despite the fact that their business plans are to provide broadcasting services on a satellite signal.
ODM’s head of regulatory affairs, Dimitri Martinez, said on Friday that as the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) had issued them with technology-neutral licences, they could provide services on any platform.
He said ODM would be "seriously prejudiced" if the migration period extended beyond 2011, as this would further entrench the incumbent, M-Net.
Mitchelle Garden of Telkom Media agreed, saying the firm’s concern was that M-Net had exclusive access to address the same market that Telkom Media was targeting, "while we sit on the sidelines".
Icasa said that it was a regulatory obligation that was imposed on e.tv, M-Net and SABC to switch to a digital terrestrial platform.
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