Increased competition in the South African TV sector is expected when digital terrestrial television (DTT) finally takes root in the country, says Louis de Jager, Southern Africa senior manager at professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
"The structural priority of the global television business in recent years has been to push the transition from analogue to digital. By the end of 2012, more than 60% of South Africa's TV households were subscribing to a digital satellite broadcast, a figure that is expected to rise to 100% over the next five years, when DTT services are introduced," he says.
De Jager states that as a result, digital multichannel advertising will grow faster in many markets than the legacy terrestrial sector, because penetration of multichannel TV is increasing.
Additionally, notes De Jager, technological factors that come with digital services, such as high-definition and 3D television, have the potential to be attractive to advertisers because of their increased visual impact.
"SA will start to feel the impact of the emerging forces that have shaped TV markets in other parts of the globe. Rising subscription-TV penetration, together with the increasing take-up of free-to-air DTT services driven by analogue switch-off, will lead to a widespread increase in the number of channels available," says De Jager.
Jacque de Villiers, also a Southern Africa senior manager at PwC, adds that a further by-product of the move to digital is a greater capability in creating targeted advertising.
"TV is uniquely able to deliver the mass audiences that advertisers see as essential to make their products and services visible to the largest possible percentage of the public," he says. "In the longer term, as audiences continue to fragment, a tipping point will come when this perception changes and advertisers will want to target particular groups within a larger audience."
According to De Villiers, SABC, eTV and those new services that emerge as the DTT roll-out proceeds, will need to respond to a change in demand from both advertisers and consumers.
"The consumer profile is also moving away from passivity to someone who is typically much more engaged; linked to this are the growth of social TV and the 'second screen', where people use smart devices - often to access social media - while watching traditional TV at the same time," explains De Villiers.
To De Villiers, the TV industry's whole premise - that the audiences are actively engaged with a screen - has helped create the country's most lucrative advertising platform.
"The current model needs to adapt to the new reality of TV as an increasingly ambient part of a multi-screen, one that is increasingly viewed in the background and is just one screen among many," concludes De Villiers.
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