Case C - Screen Africa

pay-tv players Muscle up
equipment supplier sector. Telkom Media was at the forefront
of assessing its technology requirements by attending the
IBC broadcast and digital media exhibition in Amsterdam
in September. Screen Africa has learnt from reliable sources
that Telkom Media has already appointed three consultants,
namely Television Systems Ltd (TSL), a UK-based creator
of integrated broadcast systems and a supplier of broadcast
products; internationally-based Ascent Media Consulting
Services which is currently a consultant for the SABC; and
local broadcasting company Spescom.
E.sat, sister company of South Africa’s first free-to-air
channel, e.tv, is expected to engage UK-based broadcasting
systems integrator, Magahertz Broadcast Systems Ltd, as its
main consultant. Megahertz was involved in the installation
and equipping of much of e.tv’s facilities when the channel
was first launched.
At the time of going to press which was only two weeks after
the ICASA announcement, it was already clear that the five
pay-TV broadcasters were preparing to compete head on with
each other to ensure strong positioning in the subscription
arena.
Key to gaining position in the pay-TV market will be the
date by which the new contenders launch their services and
the entry subscription rate they offer. ODM’s general manager,
Vino Govender, said its pay-TV service would launch a unique
40-50 channel digital satellite pay-TV bundle some time in the
second half of 2008.
Govender revealed that ODM would invest R1.2bn before
going operational to expand the viewing choices for a
larger portion of the population in South Africa. The ODM
consortium is reportedly backed in part by the South African
arm of SES, the Luxembourg-based satellite group, together
with the quasi-government owned Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC) and the investing arm of the trade union
Cosatu. Its service price will range from between R149 to
R369 for a full offering. Users will be able to pay only for what
they want, which would allow subscribers to create their own
bundles. Govender predicted that approximately 1.8 million
subscribers who previously could not afford DStv would
migrate to the less expensive ODM.
Also promising to be on air in Q2 2008 is Telkom Media,
part of South Africa’s telecommunications giant Telkom. It
has announced a 15-channel bouquet which includes a 24hour
news channel which will be headed by Jimi Matthews,
former SABC and e.tv chief of news. Two factors give Telkom
Media a significant advantage: firstly, its comprehensive fibre
network, which will enable it to deliver content to subscribers
cheaply and effectively. Secondly, it has a whopping R7bn
budget with which to launch its subscription broadcasting,
video-on-demand and television-via-broadband services.
Telkom Media is set to offer middle-income consumers a
range of sports, movies, music and educational channels for
less than R100.
The religious satellite broadcaster Walk on Water has said it
could be up and running as early as this Christmas. It aims to
offer a wide range of programmes based on “Christian lifestyle
principles”. It sees its support coming from Christians whom it
ayanda WIns BotsWana tender
from all the major news and production server system
suppliers in late 2006. “Key criteria were to maintain the
professional advantage by improving further on the workflow
and adding capacity to our channel,” says Kingsley Reetsang,
General Manager (Engineering Services) Botswana Radio &
Television.
As part of extensive investment in new infrastructure, BTV
has purchased two Enterprise sQ systems, one each for the
newsroom and transmission area, as well as a number of sQ
Edit Plus craft editors and graphics paintboxes. The order
includes four servers plus more than 30 journalist workstations.
Installation at BTV will take place over the next few months.
AMT was also awarded the tender for the Media
Management solution and is presently preparing to install the
internationally developed solution.
“AMT secured the latest contract after satisfying the criteria
set out in the tender,” says Dennis Herold, General Manager
of AMT.
says form 80% of the South African population. It is unclear at
what subscription rate it intends to enter the market.
E.sat has planned for 21 channels, based on movies, sport
and including a 24-hour news channel. Although e.sat has
not confirmed a launch date, in order to make it competitive
it will have to be on air within the next 12 to 18 months.
Stakeholders in e.sat are Hosken Consolidated Investments
(HCI) and Venfin. Chairperson of e.sat is Marcel Golding, who
has gained valuable broadcasting experience from heading
e.tv and is engaged on an African broadcast acquisition trail.
During e.sat’s presentation to ICASA, Golding was crossquestioned
by ODM on whether there would be double
employment of staff by e.tv and e.sat. He said this could only
occur among senior management who would oversee both
operations. There would be “no cross-subsidiaries in costs and
staff between e.tv and e.sat”. Golding has yet to reveal e.sat’s
entry subscription level.
MultiChoice has a clear advantage over the other operators.
For one, it will not have the enormous start-up costs associated
with satellite TV. It has had a monopoly position up to now and
has been able to establish an impressive pay-TV and Internet
subscriber base of more than one million customers.
It has also tied up strong content, which will appeal to South
African viewers. One of its DStv channels, SuperSport, was
awarded a R6bn broadcast soccer rights deal by the Premier
Soccer League (PSL) which presents a huge sports viewing
attraction to existing and new subscribers. That MultiChoice
is intent on offering top entertainment is evident from its
new raft of bouquet channels, namely M-Net Stars, Sony
Entertainment TV, Animax, One Gospel, plus an unnamed
“lifestyle” channel which is due to kick off in November. It
intends increasing its DStv bouquet by up to 30 video and
audio channels. In preparation MultiChoice embarked on a
shuffle of its DStv bouquet by renumbering its channels from
one or two digits, to three digits on 1 October.
saFta’s BIg nIght
awarded on the first night and the Performance awards on
the second, all categories will be combined in a single threehour
event, to be televised live on SABC2. Outside broadcast
services will be provided by Air Time Outside Broadcasts,
utilising their HD (high definition) unit.
For the second year running, CAP Events has been contracted
by the NFVF (National Film and Video Foundation),
the custodian of the SAFTAS, to stage the event.
Says SAFTAS event producer Mark West: “The decision to
go for a single day event is in line with the major international
awards like the Emmys, Oscars and BAFTAS. A lot of people
are nominated across the categories so rather than spread the
ceremonies over two days, we’re going for a single glamorous
and stylish event. Popular local stand-up comic David Kau
has been signed as our presenter. David will be joined by
personalities from across the film and TV spectrum who will
present the Golden Horn [the official SAFTAS trophy] in the
different categories.”
Approximately 2 000 guests will be invited for the event.
Because of the scale of the show, West has to make use of
a really high end supplier, namely Gearhouse South Africa.
“Gearhouse will supply the lighting, sound and AV equipment
and do the lighting design. Gearhouse MD Offer Lapid offers
a lot of input for this event.”
The stage will take up one entire wall of the Gallagher Estate
venue. This and the staircases leading up to the stage will be
constructed by Stage Magic. “Because of the new advanced
digital cameras [ie. Sony XDCAM] which pick up every detail,
we have to make sure that everything fits together exactly.
There will be a single central screen at the back of the stage
and plasma screens behind the podiums.”
The AV for the nominees packages will be done by Rapid
Blue, as well as a special video opening sequence for the event,
much like the Oscars.
There will be a crew of about 110, including the OB
technicians, working on the night of the event event. Runthroughs
will commence four days prior to the event, with a
full dress rehearsal the night before.
Last year’s first night event was struck by lightning just before
it commenced, which resulted in a delay. On the second night
CoNTiNUeD froM PAGe 1
regIonal IntegratIon
on saBa agenda
General Assembly sessions which have sometimes turned
into talk shows. This year’s General Assembly will give us the
opportunity to take stock of the problems SABA faces so that
we can re-organise ourselves to meet the challenges of the
future, such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and
the issue of sports rights acquisition as a whole.”
Other keynote topics to be addressed at the General
Assembly are the impact of digital migration for the region’s
broadcasters and the concept and funding of public service
broadcasters.
An organisation devoted to promoting excellence in
broadcasting in the SADC region, SABA is putting a special
focus at this year’s General Assembly on broadcasting reforms.
Members will be asked to present a report on the state of
broadcasting reform in their country. In addition, a SABA
working group established in December 2006 is to present
its report to the conference with proposals for a common
understanding of the concept of public broadcasting in the
region. A study on sustainable income generation for SABA
members will also be presented.
At last year’s General Assembly, SABA president Advocate
Dali Mpofu urged the organisation to become a more
strategically focused and visible association that takes an
activist and interventionist role in upholding democracy in
the region.
Says Lopes: “Following that call, a strategic planning meeting
was held in December to discuss how we could make SABA’s
lobbying mandate more proactive. Due to financial and other
reasons, we could not visit any country in the region, as
envisaged, to pursue our advocacy and support our members
in the reform process. However, we’re obviously hoping to
change this in the future and the first step has been to improve
our communication with members.”
SABA is presently wrapping up its Information 21 Project
within which SADC Calling, a weekly 40-minute programme
featuring news from the SADC region, falls. “This has been
a very successful project which has received lots of positive
feedback. We’re hoping to continue SADC Calling for another
six months at least, but it is all dependent on funding, which
came to an end on 30 September. At the moment we’re
negotiating for further funding. We are also in the process
of completing SADC Vision, which is the visual part of the
Information 21 Project. SADC Vision is a six-part TV series
that profiles the SADC region and includes interviews with
heads of state,” explains Lopes.
Another SABA activity is its Exchange Programme, a training
initiative in which technical broadcast staff visit different
SADC broadcasters for skills transfer. Lopes comments: “We
thought that before we sent people on this programme that we
should run training workshops for producers in preparation.
A workshop for Anglophone producers was recently held and
we are obviously planning to run more.”
The SABA General Assembly each year attracts delegates
from its member countries – Angola, Botswana, DRC,
Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South
Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius
and Seychelles. SABA also has international partners such
as the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) and
Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD),
as well as international associate members such as public
service broadcasters BBC and Deutsche Welle.
Originally created to represent public service broadcasters,
SABA’s sphere of activity has been extended to include
associate members who comprise community, private and
commercial broadcasters in Southern Africa, the African
continent and the rest of the world.
there was a technical hitch when the auto cue went down. Says
West: “The presenter who was at the podium at the time made
rather a meal of it, making sure everyone noticed the hitch.
To prevent that happening again we’re having a meeting in
advance with the presenters to discuss on-stage protocol.
“This year we’re making the show simpler, more glossy,
stylish and elegant. It’s important that the award winners
themselves become the show.”
October 2007 – SCREENAFRICA 51