{"id":622453,"date":"2025-12-12T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=622453"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:01:00","slug":"free-streaming-service-takes-on-e-tv-and-sabc-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/622453-free-streaming-service-takes-on-e-tv-and-sabc-plus.html","title":{"rendered":"Free streaming service takes on E-tv and SABC Plus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

cAfrica.tv is an ad-supported streaming service available in South Africa, which claims to be adding registered users at an impressive rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in 2024, it reported surpassing 500,000 registered users by October of that year. It has continued to grow steadily since and currently has nearly 613,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As for our model, cAfrica operates fully as an ad-supported free streaming service, which means users can enjoy content at no subscription cost,” the free streaming platform told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our revenue is generated through advertising across mobile, web, smart TV apps, and our certified Android TV stick.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cAfrica added that the platform has expanded to include programmatic ads, dynamic ad insertion, and partnerships with local and international advertisers to strengthen its ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We do have several exciting updates and changes coming, including platform enhancements, new content partnerships, and expansions into additional African markets,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cAfrica describes itself as a hub for African and international streaming, offering video-on-demand (VOD), live TV, and radio streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It claims to offer the largest collection of African and international entertainment, including music, movies, TV shows, documentaries, podcasts, and geographical content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its users benefit from fast streaming without buffering, 24\/7 access to popular live channels, and low data consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“cAfrica consistently adds new content every week, making it possible for you to explore thousands of hours of live TV, series, movies, and radio channels for free,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The platform has advanced features such as downloading and watching offline, liking, sharing, adding comments, and more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company launched a Google-certified media stick, the cAfrica TV Stick, in October 2025, offering support for 4K streaming and access to popular streaming apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priced at R999, the streaming stick supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and according to cAfrica, it is “compatible with future integration plans like Starlink and Amazon Kuiper”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Starlink and Kuiper (recently rebranded Amazon Leo) are satellite broadband and not broadcasting systems, it is unclear what “integration plans” cAfrica is referring to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

cAfrica.tv forms part of a growing free streaming segment in South Africa, competing with players like SABC+, DStv Stream, AfriForum TV, eVOD, and Freevision Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Establishing strong local streaming platforms is critical. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies previously highlighted the threat posed by international streaming platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One-demand music and video online streaming services are seriously disrupting the industry globally,” the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering free content on local streaming services can also help attract more users to these platforms, and players like AfriForum, the SABC, eMedia, DStv, and Sentech are doing just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentech is the latest of these to launch a free streaming service \u2014 Freevision Play \u2014 which went live in June 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sentech, many South African residents face barriers to accessing quality content and critical information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Freevision Play addresses this challenge by leveraging broadband infrastructure to deliver free, high-quality content to all communities,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Users can currently watch 18 live TV channels, including KZN TV, Cape Town TV, Afrokiddos, and Nollywood Africa, as well as seven local radio stations and on-demand content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s public broadcaster launched SABC+ in November 2022, and it has undergone two relaunches since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent relaunch occurred in July 2024 and included several new features, enhancements, and programming updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included giving SABC+ users access to Channel Africa, which offers content in Chinyanja, Kiswahili, English, French, and Portuguese. This is in addition to its seven live free-to-air channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil action organisation AfriForum launched its free Afrikaans streaming service, AfriForum TV, in April 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its core offering is Afrikaans reality TV content spanning categories like motoring, hunting, travel, politics, and history. It also features scripted shows, such as De Kleine Griet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike many other free streaming platforms, AfriForum TV appears to be free of pre-roll and mid-roll advertisements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eMedia launched eVOD in August 2021, offering both paid and free subscription tiers. Free users can access most of the popular soaps and dubbed telenovelas from E-tv, including\u00a0Scandal<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Imbewu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also offers a range of eVOD Original movies and several older Hollywood titles across a range of genres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not explicitly a free streaming service, MultiChoice’s DStv offers a small selection of free-to-view channels on its streaming platform, DStv Stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include channels like eNCA, Al Jazeera, PBS Kids, and Channel O, as well as a modest selection of on-demand content, primarily sports and kids’ shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A relatively new ad-supported streaming service in South Africa says it is adding registered users at an impressive rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":622508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[77438,102600,102599,88200,71342,95479,95477,96857],"class_list":["post-622453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-ad-supported-streaming","tag-afriforum-tv","tag-cafrica-tv","tag-dstv-stream","tag-evod","tag-free-streaming-service","tag-freevision-play","tag-sabc-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622453"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622560,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622453\/revisions\/622560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}