E-tv owner eMedia has announced that MultiChoice dropped four of its channels from DStv without warning.<\/p>\n
This comes after the Competition Tribunal ruled against eMedia\u2019s appeal to keep the channels on MultiChoice\u2019s satellite TV platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cViewers were left in the dark with no programmes as they tried to watch certain eMedia channels on the DStv platform last night,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiChoice turned off eExtra, eMovies, eMovies extra, eToonz immediately and without warning as soon as the ruling was announced.\u201d<\/p>\n
eMedia approached the Competition Tribunal<\/a><\/strong> in April after MultiChoice renewed its channel supply agreement with the company and refused to include the four channels.<\/p>\n \u201cNo reasons were provided for the ruling by the Competition Tribunal,\u201d eMedia said.<\/p>\n It said the unannounced switch-off also left eMedia without sufficient time to communicate to viewers.<\/p>\n \u201cViewers are angry and disappointed that they are no longer able to see their programmes via the DStv platform,\u201d said eMedia.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the e.tv channels will continue to broadcast on Openview.\u201d<\/p>\n E-tv and eNCA will still be broadcast on DStv.<\/p>\n eMedia announced in its annual results last week that eExtra, eMovies Extra, and eReality rank in the top 15 of all satellite channels available in South Africa.<\/p>\n It noted that the channels contributed to the company\u2019s audience and revenue share.<\/p>\n Openview and eMedia\u2019s channels on DStv accounted for 21.9% of the company\u2019s advertising revenue, bringing in R468.1 million.<\/p>\n eMedia\u2019s direct-to-home satellite TV unit achieved profitability for the first time, with content costs for the year pegged at R446.3 million.<\/p>\n Therefore, losing four of its channels on DStv could be a substantial blow to eMedia.<\/p>\n During the Competition Tribunal hearings, MultiChoice revealed that it would only have capacity for 11 more channels<\/strong><\/a> on its satellites after cancelling the four from eMedia.<\/p>\n MultiChoice argued that the rejection of the eMedia\u2019s four channels was based on an assessment of their distinctiveness and appeal, which fell short of DStv\u2019s commercial requirements.<\/p>\n MultiChoice has refuted eMedia’s allegation that it switched the channels off without warning.<\/p>\n It pointed to a media query from TV journalist Thinus Ferreira<\/a><\/strong> at the end of March, suggesting that its response qualified as sufficient notice.<\/p>\n “We had shared a media statement on the flighting of the channels in questions [from Ferreira] sometime in March with an indication of the expected date for carriage to cease,” MultiChoice stated.<\/p>\n In its response to Ferreira, MultiChoice said it expected the Competition Tribunal case to be concluded by 31 May, and that it would carry eMedia’s four channels until then.<\/p>\n MultiChoice has cut off four e.tv-owned channels without warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":441746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-446932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446934,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446932\/revisions\/446934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}MultiChoice responds<\/h3>\n
\nNow read: E-tv takes South Africa hostage over spectrum<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"