MultiChoice which was the only player in South Africa’s pay-TV market will be have a new player competing with them, thus ending their 12 year long monopoly in pay-TV market. On Digital media would be competitor to MultiChoice since they have announced to enter pay-TV market in May. They On Digital Media will be launching pay-TV in South Africa under the name Top TV.
Viewers in South Africa will have now more option to choose and competition is surely to bring down the rates which will surely benefit the viewers. Top TV from On Digital Media is more affordable, has better video and audio quality and will be offering around 55 channels. Top TV will subscribers various plans to choose from so that they can select they plan which will be best suited for their needs. And subscribers will also have freedom of switching plans any time they want and they won’t be under any contractual obligation with the company. Packages start from R99 to R249 per month which is affordable.
Out of the 55 channels that Top TV offering, it will include 9 local South African channels related to gospels, sports, movies and various other entertainment channels. Since South Africa has strong presence of Indian and Portuguese communities, they will also be offering channels like Zee Cinema and RTPI.
They will also be offering premium channels like Fox Entertainment, Showtime, and Star TV which air popular shows like American Idol, Simpsons, House, etc. They will also be including three channels from Discovery Channel. But unfortunately they would be offering only two sports channels, Eurosport and Setanta Africa.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Full Hi-Def to Launch a Japanese Mobile TV
Renesas has announced that they will be launching “SH-Mobile-MT1” application processor for digital broadcasting designed for next generation of mobile handsets. The new processor will allow viewing and recording of 1SegTV in Full HD mode in Japan. The sample shipment of this new processor would start from April 2010.
The new processor under tests has achieved time varying image processing and IP conversion of 1920X1080 pixels Full HD. It has noise reduction function, 5.1 channels voice and lower power consumption. Even the voice output has improved considerably. For animation processing hardware MPEG2 image of HD size has been installed.
The new processor’s design and application is one of the first in the industry, because recording and watching TV in mobile phone has been achieved for the first time. There is lower power consumption by the CPU because video and audio is processed with the hardware which is feasible than getting processed by middle ware.
Recording of TV can be saved with the help of SD card. A software package will offer the functionality of receiving and watching the digital broadcast. The BML browser of the framework will allow AV synchronization at real time and DTV applications can be also developed easily. The API package’s specification also conforms to standard API specification developed for next generation devices.
Since it’s known that analog broadcasting mode will end in the year 2011, it becomes important accelerating factor to generate machines that would replace the analog machines that used to receive and broadcast digital media.
The new processor under tests has achieved time varying image processing and IP conversion of 1920X1080 pixels Full HD. It has noise reduction function, 5.1 channels voice and lower power consumption. Even the voice output has improved considerably. For animation processing hardware MPEG2 image of HD size has been installed.
The new processor’s design and application is one of the first in the industry, because recording and watching TV in mobile phone has been achieved for the first time. There is lower power consumption by the CPU because video and audio is processed with the hardware which is feasible than getting processed by middle ware.
Recording of TV can be saved with the help of SD card. A software package will offer the functionality of receiving and watching the digital broadcast. The BML browser of the framework will allow AV synchronization at real time and DTV applications can be also developed easily. The API package’s specification also conforms to standard API specification developed for next generation devices.
Since it’s known that analog broadcasting mode will end in the year 2011, it becomes important accelerating factor to generate machines that would replace the analog machines that used to receive and broadcast digital media.
Regulatory norms over cable rights in Bahamas
Years after being the only player in pay-TV market in South Africa, MultiChoice DStv will be facing a competitor very soon. The competitor is going to be On Digital Media, which has announced to enter the South African Market under the brand name of Top TV. More players entering in the pay-TV market is a win-win situation of for South African consumers as it will lead to lowering of prices of subscriptions and they will more options to choose from.
On Digital Media announced that they will be launching their pay-TV services Top TV by May. Their subscriptions plans start at very attractive from R99 to R249, based on the number of channels offered in particular package. Top TV will be offering around 55 channels including local South African channels related to entertainment, sports and channels for Indian and Portuguese communities who have strong presence in South Africa. Best part of Top TV is that they will be offering subscribers the freedom of choosing channels within the bouquet, which wasn’t the case earlier with MultiChoice where subscribers had to choose entire bouquet of channels only and not individual channels.
As launch date comes closer company will release prices of satellite dishes and other installation chargers that would be required in setting up Top TV. On Digital Media has been researching South African pay-TV market for almost 4 years spending almost R80m. They are hoping to at least 50 percent of the households who view free to air channels.
On Digital Media announced that they will be launching their pay-TV services Top TV by May. Their subscriptions plans start at very attractive from R99 to R249, based on the number of channels offered in particular package. Top TV will be offering around 55 channels including local South African channels related to entertainment, sports and channels for Indian and Portuguese communities who have strong presence in South Africa. Best part of Top TV is that they will be offering subscribers the freedom of choosing channels within the bouquet, which wasn’t the case earlier with MultiChoice where subscribers had to choose entire bouquet of channels only and not individual channels.
As launch date comes closer company will release prices of satellite dishes and other installation chargers that would be required in setting up Top TV. On Digital Media has been researching South African pay-TV market for almost 4 years spending almost R80m. They are hoping to at least 50 percent of the households who view free to air channels.
Regulatory norms over cable rights in Bahamas
The communications sector regulatory board in Bahamas, Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority which was recently formed has proposed that Cable Bahamas should spate their internet broadband services from its cable TV services. They also proposed that the BISX listed company which deals in cable TV and Bahamas Telecommunications Company which deals in fixed line voice services, should submit them for retail price regulation.
Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority has said they needed to come strong against the comfortable positions this both companies have in their respective markets in Bahamas and in these actions would benefit the consumers for good and will lead to better competition in the Bahamas.
Cable Bahamas had already shown the sign of let down in October 2009, where they had slashed the prices of their competitive products. Like their Autospeed package was reduced from $34.99 to $29.99 and their CruiseSpeed package from $54.99 to $39.99.
These two companies faced a very low risk of competition because they were the only companies who owned infrastructure of fiber optic cable and subsea telecoms which was need internet services in Bahamas. Hence any new company that wanted to enter into the same market had to develop their own infrastructure or lease it from these two companies.
Cable Bahamas submitted a survey to regulatory board in October 2009 saying that they just 40 percent share in Bahamas pay-TV market. But regulatory board pointed out that the survey was conducted before Cable Bahamas started offering digital market. According to them current market share scenario is much different to report submitted in October 2009 which did not include digital TV services.
Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority has said they needed to come strong against the comfortable positions this both companies have in their respective markets in Bahamas and in these actions would benefit the consumers for good and will lead to better competition in the Bahamas.
Cable Bahamas had already shown the sign of let down in October 2009, where they had slashed the prices of their competitive products. Like their Autospeed package was reduced from $34.99 to $29.99 and their CruiseSpeed package from $54.99 to $39.99.
These two companies faced a very low risk of competition because they were the only companies who owned infrastructure of fiber optic cable and subsea telecoms which was need internet services in Bahamas. Hence any new company that wanted to enter into the same market had to develop their own infrastructure or lease it from these two companies.
Cable Bahamas submitted a survey to regulatory board in October 2009 saying that they just 40 percent share in Bahamas pay-TV market. But regulatory board pointed out that the survey was conducted before Cable Bahamas started offering digital market. According to them current market share scenario is much different to report submitted in October 2009 which did not include digital TV services.
Pay TV competition: benefits for you
South African pay-TV market which was prominently dominated by MultiChoice for almost 12 years is set for a change.
MultiChoice had monopoly in pay-TV market in South Africa as there were no other competitors in the market and MultiChoice was the only choice consumers had. But now two new companies On Digital Media and Super5Media have decided to enter the South African pay-TV market and challenge the market leader MultiChoice. MyBroadband helps in knowing how exactly these three companies are positioned in the market currently.
As of now MultiChoice is the market leader in South African market. Still sensing competition from new companies that would be launching their services soon, they have increased their product range which would come in effect from April. In December they announced that they would be adding two more channels to their High Definition package while resulted in boosting their HD offering.
After almost 4 years of researching of South African pay-TV market, On Digital Media has finally announced that they would be launching their pay-TV services in May under the brand name Top TV. They would be offering as many as 55 channels which packages starting from R99 to R249. Top TV would be giving their subscribers freedom to choose individual channels they want to view instead of whole channel bouquets.
Another entrant in this market is Super5Media which was previously known as Telkom Media. We know nothing much about Super5Media about their services and package that they would be offering. It’s just known that they are planning a commercial launch in second quarter of 2010.
MultiChoice had monopoly in pay-TV market in South Africa as there were no other competitors in the market and MultiChoice was the only choice consumers had. But now two new companies On Digital Media and Super5Media have decided to enter the South African pay-TV market and challenge the market leader MultiChoice. MyBroadband helps in knowing how exactly these three companies are positioned in the market currently.
As of now MultiChoice is the market leader in South African market. Still sensing competition from new companies that would be launching their services soon, they have increased their product range which would come in effect from April. In December they announced that they would be adding two more channels to their High Definition package while resulted in boosting their HD offering.
After almost 4 years of researching of South African pay-TV market, On Digital Media has finally announced that they would be launching their pay-TV services in May under the brand name Top TV. They would be offering as many as 55 channels which packages starting from R99 to R249. Top TV would be giving their subscribers freedom to choose individual channels they want to view instead of whole channel bouquets.
Another entrant in this market is Super5Media which was previously known as Telkom Media. We know nothing much about Super5Media about their services and package that they would be offering. It’s just known that they are planning a commercial launch in second quarter of 2010.
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