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TopTV bolsters bouquet

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 19 Mar 2012

Following the termination of some of its channels and a failed attempt at launching an adult entertainment package, SA's second pay television operator, TopTV, has gained some ground with the signing up of two new third-party channels.

The additions to TopTV's line-up, a 24-hour international news, information and lifestyle channel, and an African movie channel, will both be available as part of its bouquet offering before the end of the month.

Having already gone live this weekend, NHK World TV is an English channel broadcast from Tokyo, in Japan, and features Newsline, a half-hour live news broadcast at the top of every hour, followed by a variety of Asian lifestyle programmes, documentaries and special reports focusing on culture, news, entertainment and sport, as well as Japanese animated cartoons, anime. According to TopTV, the eclectic channel reaches 130 million households worldwide.

The African Movie Channel (AMC) will hit the airwaves at a date to be confirmed, but “definitely before the end of March”, and features African entertainment. According to TopTV, AMC is the largest African content aggregator in the industry. It replaces Hi Nolly, which was suspended late last year when its operator was placed under liquidation.

TopTV says AMC, which was launched in 2005, has a library of over 1 000 Nollywood and other African movie titles, and “hundreds of hours” of soaps, series and dramas from across the continent.

The introduction of NHK World TV and AMC, broadcasting on channel 406 and 120, respectively, comes as TopTV's content team has been facing “a lot of pressure”. While one of its recently terminated channels, One Music, was reinstated last month, the operator has had to cut its losses with Current TV, a “very popular” US-based channel that ceased operations just over a week ago.

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