On Digital Media is expected to launch its pay-TV service by year end, but the internet is also on the MultiChoice’s radar.<\/p>\n
“Our focus is to concentrate on subscribers and to provide compelling content,” Nolo Letele, CEO of MultiChoice, said in an interview with Business Day yesterday.<\/p>\n
While the internet has only limited penetration in SA, MultiChoice’s parent company Naspers has already said it is ultimately expected to compete with pay-TV.<\/p>\n
“It will take five years before we have true broadband available Then we will see the internet providing an enhanced way of consuming content,” Letele said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, DStv on Demand offered a web-based catch-up service for subscribers, and the company was conducting a trial of IPTV — TV delivered via the internet — in a gated community.<\/p>\n
Next year an internet-enabled decoder would be available, allowing customers to access online content and watch it on TV rather than computer screens, he said.<\/p>\n
However, SA has lagged with regard to mobile TV. MultiChoice has already launched the service in Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia, and is rolling it out in Uganda.<\/p>\n
Icasa last week said licensing of mobile TV services would be complete before year-end — well ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.<\/p>\n
Letele, however, said former president Thabo Mbeki’s promise that the World Cup would be broadcast on cellphones might not be met.<\/p>\n