{"id":44421,"date":"2013-08-19T14:34:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T12:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=44421"},"modified":"2013-08-19T14:36:03","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T12:36:03","slug":"sentech-to-enter-free-satellite-tv-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/44421\/sentech-to-enter-free-satellite-tv-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentech to enter free satellite TV race?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government signal distributor Sentech<\/a> is planning to launch a free-to-air satellite TV service based on its Vivid platform, according to a well-placed industry source.<\/p>\n

The plan follows news that e-tv<\/a> sister company, Platco Digital<\/a> is set to launch a subscription-free, high definition (HD) satellite TV service, which seems to have lit a fire under Sentech.<\/p>\n

Sentech already operates a free-to-air satellite TV service called Vivid, but it is understood that state-owned company wants to relaunch the platform, quite possibly under a new name.<\/p>\n

Curiously, the industry source said that Sentech is aiming to launch towards the end of September 2013, a few days before Platco\u2019s OpenView HD is scheduled to launch in October.<\/p>\n

The decoder, dish, and installation together are expected to cost between R1,200 and R1,500.<\/p>\n

Sentech has plans to launch video on-demand, mobile and personal video recording functionality next year (2014), the source said.<\/p>\n

Sentech was asked about its free-to-air satellite plans, but declined to answer questions about it. The state-owned signal distributor said it would be releasing a statement on the matter soon.<\/p>\n

Platco Digital confirmed in July that it will be launching OpenView HD, a low-cost direct-to-home satellite TV service, in October 2013, which offer 15 channels in a mix of SD and HD, without need of a monthly subscription.<\/p>\n

Ellies, one of the three partners who are developing decoders for the service, have indicated that a decoder and installation will have an estimated once-off cost of R1,899 – while Platco have said that, as more competition enters into the market, decoder prices should drop.<\/p>\n

More on digital TV<\/h3>\n

Another pay-TV service for South Africa?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Platco Digital signs with Luxembourg satellite firm<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Free satellite TV operator launch date revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

TopTV porn channels delayed: report<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A well-placed industry source has indicated that state-owned signal distributor, Sentech has plans to launch a free-to-air satellite TV service based on its Vivid platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":44422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[26,6340,6333,1646,6505],"class_list":["post-44421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-headline","tag-openview-hd","tag-platco-digital","tag-sentech","tag-vivid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44423,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44421\/revisions\/44423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}