Advanced Television

TopTV hits key 200,000 subs

January 20, 2011

By Chris Forrester

 

Former US  Vice President Al Gore helped celebrate TopTV’s 200,000 subs achievement, a key metric for the new South African pay-TV broadcaster.  TopTV is owned by On Digital Media.

TopTV launched on May 1 2010 offering more than 60 channels, including BET, Discovery Travel & Living, Fuel TV, Natura, MGM as well as the TopTV flagships channels – Top Movies, Top One, Top Gospel, Top History, Top Learn and Top Crime.

ODM said that by Christmas 2010 TopTV’s subscribers numbers had reached 200,000, with a record 50,000 activations in December alone. TopTV in its early day had to cope with a ports strike that held up its imported set-top boxes as well as handling a surge in demand some ten times greater than anticipated.

With over 800,000 viewers – on average 4 viewers per household – the CEO of TopTV, Vino Govender, said: “We always believed there was a need for an innovative and affordable Pay TV service in South Africa. Our subscribers confirm this every day.”

Govender added that 2011 would bring with new additions to the TopTV offering including in particular a sports channel by Q3 2011, new HD channels, and an HD Personal Video Recorder (PVR). – I-Net Bridge.

The next hurdle, perhaps now very definitely in sight, is 340,000 subs, another key metric and one which TopTV says represents break-even for the operation.

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