South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled in favour of independent broadcaster e.tv in its dispute with the country’s Communications Ministry. The court’s unanimous ruling means that South Africa’s switchover to all-digital TV broadcasting is again delayed. The court said there must be more consultation before analogue transmissions are abandoned. e.tv’s analogue transmissions reach millions of South […]

South Africa-based pay-TV operator MultiChoice says it is facing a liquidity crisis in terms of its presence in Nigeria, its second-largest market. The problem is that repatriating cash out of Nigeria is expensive. The country has various foreign exchange rates, and the difference between the ‘Investors & Exporters’ rate (of US$1 is currently some Naira420. […]

The numerous delays and excuses affecting the distribution of South Africa’s digital terrestrial TV set-top boxes have been affected by a new excuse: flooding. The recent floods, which severely affected the KwaZulu-Natal region and other parts of the country’s Eastern Cape, have been cited as being responsible for the slow distribution of converter boxes. The […]

The British & Irish Lions, in conjunction with The South African Rugby Union, will release a three-part behind-the-scenes documentary of the 2021 British & Irish Lions Series on ITV. The documentary series, called Two Sides, tells the story of both the Lions and Springboks during the first Tour to South Africa since 2009. The documentary […]

South Africa’s MultiChoice pay-TV operation is to launch 4K content this autumn ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament being held in Qatar. CEO Calvo Mawela stated that MultiChoice is ready for the World Cup in 4K and the service will be offered on its DStv and Showmax Pro platforms; Showmax Pro is […]

South African broadcaster MultiChoice Group (MCG) delivered steady margins for the year ended March 31st 2022. “Reduced losses in the Rest of Africa (RoA), a rebound in advertising revenues and a continued focus on cost containment enabled us to absorb the R1.1bn (€70m impact of a normalisation in content costs as live sport returned and […]

South African broadcaster MultiChoice says that its headline earnings per share (HEPS) are expected to fall by as much as 25 per cent. The trading period to the end of March has been challenging enough, but it has suffered from foreign exchange losses that have hurt the pay-TV broadcaster. MultiChoice says that its HEPS numbers […]

South Africa’s IHS Towers will shortly be the nation’s largest operator of cellular and radiocommunications towers. IHS is completing the purchase of MTN’s portfolio of 5,701 towers in a deal valued at Rand 6.4 billion (€383.3m) liabilities of some Rand 4.6 billion. The deal sees IHS take 70 per cent of the eventual combined business […]

South Africa’s pay-TV operator DStv has dumped four e.TV channels. eMedia, owner of the channels, said the channels were dropped without warning. The decision comes after the country’s Competition Tribunal ruled against eMedia’s appeal to keep the channels on MultiChoice’s satellite TV platform. “Viewers were left in the dark with no programmes as they tried […]

Despite a plethora of OTT offerings as well as the well-established DStv pay-TV services in South Africa, it is clear that there’s plenty of life left in free-to-air commercial broadcasting, at least as far as eMedia and its e.TV broadcasting station is concerned. eMedia saw its share price rocket earlier this week when it said […]