SA mobile operator, MTN says that its video-on-demand (VOD) service is weeks away from completion.<\/p>\n
The group announced in October that it would launch a subscription based VOD service, partnering with Discover Digital, a South African digital entertainment business.<\/p>\n
Larry Annetts, chief marketing officer (CMO) told BusinessTech on a conference call on Thursday (23 October) that MTN has piloted the service offline, and \u201cis looking to launch at the end of November\u201d.<\/p>\n
Annetts told BusinessTech this week that the process is taking a little longer than anticipated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMTN is currently running tests on its systems and communications equipment, which will soon be followed by the launch of\u00a0 video-on-demand, this process should take weeks to complete,” he said.<\/p>\n
The monthly service will enable customers to download movies, as a transactional video on demand (T-VOD) play.<\/p>\n
MTN said it will structure data bundles to download this content at subsidized prices.<\/p>\n
Annetts said that MTN would provide pricing details closer to launch.<\/p>\n
In August, MTN moved a step closer to offering a meaningful streaming video service on its network following a successful live trial of a Transport Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and 2.4Tbps wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) system.<\/p>\n
The trial, in conjunction with\u00a0Huawei, was the fastest and most intelligent optical network to date in the industry, MTN said.<\/p>\n
South Africa has seen the launch of several VOD services in recent months including Altech Node, a subscription \u201cpush\u201d service and home automation system, and Vidi, an online VOD service from Times Media Group.<\/p>\n
Telkom has expressed its interest to offer VOD by extending an invitation to industry to bid for the provisioning of VOD in February.<\/p>\n
Vodacom meanwhile, said it aims to launch a VOD service in South Africa in 2015, with its strategy closely aligned to its parent company, Vodafone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get revenues out from the data growth, as well as from the content itself. I think the margins in VOD is not big, but the knock-on effect it can have in data growth is very large, and I think that\u2019s where the opportunity lies for us,\u201d Vodacom CEO, Shameel Joosub told BusinessTech recently.<\/p>\n
Joosub however, would not be drawn on an exact launch time frame.<\/p>\n
MTN to launch subscription based video-on-demand in November<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n MTN regains footing in SA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n MTN a step closer to streaming video<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n