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MobileTV outlines ambitious plans

Martin Czernowalow
By Martin Czernowalow, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 24 Oct 2014
MobileTV says it can capture more than three million viewers within the next three years.
MobileTV says it can capture more than three million viewers within the next three years.

Broadcaster MobileTV will launch its full bouquet of services on 1 February next year, after announcing it is targeting a limited commercial launch in December.

MobileTV founder and chairman Mothobi Mutloatse say its foray into satellite pay-TV services, on Sentech's Freevision platform, is one of many broadcasting services that it will offer, including a mobile TV product.

However, the company's satellite offering will pit it against MultiChoice's dominant DStv service, which holds the majority of the local market and is also a major player on the African continent.

Formerly known as the MobileTV Consortium, MobileTV was initially given a non-commercial licence in September 2010 by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) to test the technical abilities of Korean Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) over a 12-month period. In November last year, ICASA granted the company additional trial licences to test the DMB technology in East London, Port Elizabeth, and the Durban, Pietermaritzburg areas.

According to Mutloatse, the broadcaster was commercially licensed in April 2014, when it was the only applicant for licences to have submitted guarantees for funding, a detailed market research accompanying its business plan, as well as programming plans.

Mutloatse says the company will offer viewers 33 channels at launch in February, including a range of sports, entertainment and movie channels from Europe and the US, as well as a Korean drama channel. He claims there will be a strong appetite for the latter, similar to what has been seen with South American telenovelas on DStv. "People have this impression that there is a only a market for western programming, but you would be surprised. We will offer a plethora of interesting channels for viewers to choose from."

Content is king

Mutloatse is confident the pay-TV broadcaster will make a better go of standing up to DStv in the local market, saying it will manage to avoid the pitfalls that have stymied fellow newcomer StarSat, forcing the company into business rescue soon after it launched.

"Content is king. The South African viewer has become very discerning and is very choosy," he says, adding StarSat's downfall has been the lack of premium content. He points out MobileTV is also at an advantage as it will be running on the existing Freevision network, which means it can sidestep the costs and headache of rolling out its own platform.

The company yesterday announced it has signed a deal with set-top box manufacturer ABT Africa to supply its HD MPEG4 PVR-Ready decoder. The MobileTV decoder will be available from 1 December and Mutloatse says it will retail for less than R1 000.

In terms of its targeted market share, Mutloatse says the broadcaster has identified an "addressable" audience of some 15 million viewers in SA, and is hoping to grab a quarter of this figure - more than three million - within three years.

He says the country's planned broadcast digital TV migration will be an equaliser for broadcasters, paving the way to offering interactive viewing. "It will allow us to be creative in terms of what we offer - passive viewership is dead."

Earlier this month, MobileTV unveiled a video-on-demand (VOD) service, called Movielicious, adding to the list of emerging players that look set to take on DStv. This comes weeks after Altech launched a VOD service called Node, which in turn followed the debut of Vidi - Times Media's VOD offering.

Mutloatse says the company's pricing is based on market research and viewer feedback, and he is confident the broadcaster will enter the market at an attractive price point. From February, subscribers will be able to choose from two packages - the Starter Pack, at R57.48 a month, or the Thatha Zonke bouquet, which includes all 33 channels, as well as the Movielicious offering, at R180, and an additional $15 charge, a month.

Regulatory overhaul

Meanwhile, market observers recently warned against the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) issuing more broadcast licences, until a regulatory change removes some of the barriers to entry into the local market.

Independent broadcast analyst Kate Skinner says civil society and business need to be vocal about issues such as set-top box interoperability, access to premium content and a wider choice of services. She adds that despite StarSat's failure to launch, its appearance on the market prompted DStv to introduce a host of cheaper bouquets. "Competition is obviously much needed."

Skinner suggests ICASA should, in the meantime, be held accountable by Parliament for failing to regulate the sector properly.

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