Electric SUV racing series, Extreme E, has announced that South Africa’s SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) will televise all five of this year’s X Prix live on its linear channels, SABC1, SABC2, SABC3 and SABC Sport Channel – which began with the debut X Prix which took place in the deserts of Saudi Arabia last […]
Years of losses have forced a major restructuring on financially troubled South Africa Broadcasting (SABC). The broadcaster says that it has now laid off 621 staff, some 21 per cent of its workforce in order to make SABC “fit for purpose” and to avoid the need for more public handouts. “The reduction of employee costs […]
South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC has struck a carriage deal with commercial operator eMedia which operates the Openview free-to-air satellite service. The agreement will see SABC supply six TV channels to Openview. The channels include its mainstream SABC 1, 2 and 3 transmissions as well as three new channels. One of the new channels will […]
PremiumFree TV, a new DTH service, will launch in South Africa on May 1st. PremiumFree TV will initially comprise 18 channels and says it will carry a range of content from sports and movies and telenovelas. PremiumFree is already available in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) since late 2018, but is now expanding with a […]
South Africa has postponed its spectrum auction yet again. This time the reason was a legal objection from the telco provider, Telkom, and broadcaster, e.tv, who secured a ruling from the nation’s high court to pause the auction. Judge Selby Baqwa has now placed an interdict on regulator ICASA. The auction was supposed to happen […]
South Africa’s telecommunications regulator ICASA is facing criticism for not releasing the names of bidders who have qualified to participate in the nation’s 5G spectrum auction. ICASA had planned to release the names on February 22nd but then delayed the publication for a month, until March 23rd. The reason given was that there had been […]
South Africa’s plans to switch off its analogue TV transmissions and replace with digital terrestrial TV have suffered more than their share of false dawns. Now the country’s president says the nation will start the shift in March. President Cyril Ramaphosa last week told the National Assembly in his ‘State of the Nation’ speech that […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband-by-satellite system has added South Africa as a target market. South Africa’s media and telecoms regulator ICASA (Independent Communication Authority of South Africa) confirming that SpaceX is in discussion with the reguklator about obtaining a licence to operate in the country. To operate in South Africa and to provide its satellite-based internet […]
South Africa telco MTN Group is seeking to sell off its telecommunications towers. MTN has reportedly instructed Citigroup and Standard Chartered banks to advise on a ‘sale and leaseback’ solution for the division. MTN is said to be looking to achieve $340 million – $700 million from the sale. The portfolio of towers is impressive […]
South African telco MTN has mounted a legal challenge to the nation’s ICASA regulator over its plans to auction and award licences for 5G development in the country. MTN’s documents were filed at the Pretoria High Court on January 27th. ICASA said on January 29th that it will oppose MTN’s legal action and that it […]