While reports indicate TopTV may lose the contract to broadcast Hollywood content from US-based Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the pay-television provider says, as far as it is concerned, “it is business as usual”.
Already beset by the loss of some of its channels and an adult package launch gone wrong, SA's second satellite television operator, TopTV is reportedly faced with the loss of one of its US-based movie channels. The company, a subsidiary of On Digital Media, says, however, that reports are inaccurate.
MGM, which offers an extensive library of movies and TV shows from Hollywood, is reportedly looking to sell off 25 of its MGM-branded international channels. Should MGM get rid of the 25 channels across Europe, Asia, South and North America and Africa, TopTV 113, a 24-hour broadcast of MGM titles, will no longer be available.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, MGM's new management is of the opinion that these no longer form part of the 80-plus-year-old establishment. The trade publication reports that MGM's management considers the 25 channels to be “an impediment to getting full value out of the company's huge content library”, which included 4 100 feature films and 10 500 TV episodes at the end of last year.
The rationale behind the move to kill the MGM-branded channels, says the report, is based on the fact that the company could make more money selling movie titles separately than it currently does by putting 100% of them on branded channels, such as TopTV's channel 113.
The shift to online and digital is also indicated as a driving factor behind MGM's decision. “While in the past the best way to monetise the older library titles once they had been through theatrical, network, pay-TV and syndication windows worldwide was to package them on branded channels, that is no longer the case. Now, similar libraries are being licensed all over again to Netflix, Amazon and others for online and digital streaming delivery systems. MGM at present can't do similar deals for most of its library, because it is committed to the channels.”
While TopTV confirmed it is engaging with MGM in this regard, it did not confirm that the channel was in danger of closing down, saying only: “It appears that The Hollywood Reporter has not reported accurately on the MGM situation.”
In response to a request for comment from MGM executive vice-president of marketing, Doug Finberg, MGM's media relations company stated: “MGM is not commenting on the Hollywood Reporter story.”
Share