{"id":181463,"date":"2017-06-26T10:43:46","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T08:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=181463"},"modified":"2017-06-26T10:43:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T08:43:46","slug":"why-telkom-mtn-vodacom-and-cell-c-could-determine-the-future-of-netflix-and-showmax-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/181463\/why-telkom-mtn-vodacom-and-cell-c-could-determine-the-future-of-netflix-and-showmax-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Telkom, MTN, Vodacom and Cell C could determine the future of Netflix and Showmax in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telkom and e-TV made headlines <\/a><\/strong>this weekend after it emerged that Telkom had approached the broadcaster a number of times with an offer to purchase.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0interested buyers were rejected as a \u201cmatter of principle\u201d, the reports noted that Telkom was not the only interested buyer, and that Hosken Consolidated Investments (e-TV’s parent company)\u00a0was also constantly in talks with mobile operators like Vodacom and MTN about partnership opportunities.<\/p>\n

Telkom declined to comment on the acquisition reports, but noted that \u201cmany telecoms companies had identified content as a strong driver for high-speed broadband adoption\u201d.<\/p>\n

While e-TV has been a notable target for these telecoms companies, all OTT TV and video will be under the spotlight within the next five years, according to a new report <\/a><\/strong>by Digital TV research.<\/p>\n

Over-the-top content (“OTT”) is a term used in broadcasting and technology business reporting to refer to audio, video, and other media transmitted via the Internet as a standalone product.<\/p>\n

It typically precludes services that form part of an operator of multiple cable or direct-broadcast satellite television systems but will include video rental services, video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand services.<\/p>\n

Big business<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to the report,\u00a0Sub-Saharan Africa OTT TV and video will still be considered a very immature sector by 2022, with movie and TV episode revenues reaching $640 million (R8.2 billion) for 35 countries.<\/p>\n

However, this total is up by a multiple of 12 on 2016\u2019s $52 million, according to the Sub-Saharan Africa OTT TV & Video Forecasts report.<\/p>\n

South Africa will account for 40% of the region\u2019s revenues by 2022<\/strong>, with Nigeria bringing in a further 21%, it said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very important to stress the power that mobile operators have over the future of Sub-Saharan African OTT TV and video,” said\u00a0Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the total will triple from 2016, we only expect 13 million fixed broadband households by 2022. Fixed broadband is clearly not big enough to sustain a viable OTT sector. However, there will be 486 million smartphone users by 2022<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mobile operators know that they are in a powerful position. Not only can they give OTT players access to their extensive subscriber pools, but they can also conduct the billing (thus foregoing the need for SVOD platforms to insist on credit card payments).<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, many mobile operators currently charge high data prices for OTT access \u2013 which can add considerable costs to subscribers. However, a distribution deal with a mobile operator can substantially cut these costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0How much money MultiChoice makes per DStv subscriber<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telkom and eTV made headlines this weekend after it emerged that Telkom had approached the broadcaster a number of times with an offer to purchase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":181501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-181463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181463"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181515,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181463\/revisions\/181515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}