On Digital Media (ODM) will hear tomorrow whether it can appeal against an earlier Western Cape High Court judgement that pulled the plug on its adult offerings. This ruling was based on a finding that the communications regulator had erred in its decision to license the broadcaster's porn channels.
In April last year, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) issued three licences to ODM to broadcast Playboy TV, Desire TV and Private Spice, via its pay-TV platform StarSat. However, this decision was challenged by the Justice Alliance of SA, Doctors for Life, and Cause for Justice, on the basis that ICASA erred in making its decision.
Last month, judge Lee Bozalek ruled the matter be remitted back to ICASA for reconsideration, ordering ODM to stop broadcasting the hardcore content immediately, and both ICASA and the broadcaster were ordered to pay the applicants' legal costs.
Shortly after the decision, ICASA and ODM said they would seek leave to appeal the judgement. On Friday, they argued that reasonable prospects existed that Bozalek's ruling would be overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Judgement in Friday's application for leave to appeal was reserved until 10 December (tomorrow), by the Western Cape High Court.
The broadcaster's adult channels started airing in November last year as a standalone StarSat sex TV package, at a subscription fee of R159 per month. While ODM interim CEO Eddie Mbalo previously denied StarSat was relying on its porn offerings as a means to survive in SA's uncompetitive pay-TV landscape, market analysts have speculated the court ruling preventing the broadcaster from airing the content could be a serious blow to the company.
'Utter rubbish'
Meanwhile, Mbalo this morning said he was mystified by a recent Sunday Times report that stated StarSat's subscriber numbers have dwindled from a high of 400 000 to between 80 000 and 85 000.
The newspaper quoted Vino Govender, of First National Media Investment and founding CEO of ODM, as saying StarSat now received between R12 million and R13 million from monthly subscriptions, compared to R42 million when he stepped down in early 2012.
However, Mbalo says the numbers are "utter rubbish". "I don't know where they got these figures from. Perhaps it's partly based on the court case, and a dispute between former shareholder and the IDC [Industrial Development Corporation], but this has nothing to do with ODM."
But Mbalo would not comment on ODM's actual subscriber numbers, saying this is privileged information the company would not reveal.
He also confirmed today that the company has yet to move beyond the closing stages of its business rescue process, having had to apply for the transfer of ODM's electronic communications network services licence to equity investor StarTimes.
Mbalo says the broadcaster is waiting on ICASA to approve its application, but adds it is impossible to say when this will happen.
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