Telkom Media has been awarded a commercial satellite and cable broadcasting licence by ICASA, the industry regulator. The licence allows Telkom Media to operate both a satellite pay-TV service and an IPTV service in South Africa. ’We and our shareholders are absolutely delighted with this award. We welcome the finalisation of the conditions of the licence based on our proposal submitted to ICASA and look forward to providing inspiring, dynamic and refreshingly different programming for our subscribers,’ said CEO Mandla Ngcobo. According to a MyADSL.co.za report, Rikus Matthyser, Telkom Media’s Chief Strategist – says that Telkom Media will partner with any company which can provide them with suitable network infrastructure to ensure high quality services to consumers. Matthyser said that this may involve new network infrastructure players like Vodacom, MTN, Neotel or InfraCo. Matthyser further points out that the company is building a High Definition TV network (HDTV), and that Telkom Media will definitely look at bringing HDTV content – which may include the 2010 World Cup - to consumers.
The state-owned broadcast signal distributor, Sentech is protesting that it simply does not have enough money to do its job properly. Chairperson Colin Hickling points out that it has been proved impossible to roll out a national broadband radio network until extra funds are received from the government. FIN24 reports that the annual report tabled in Parliament also points out that lack of funds, or even the approval to borrow in the financial markets is preventing the company from upgrading or expanding its telecommunications networks. Although the company has now been given the go-ahead to build a back up teleport facility for the 2010 World Cup, Sentech has no other back-up or redundant facility for its networks.
Cabinet approved the Electronic Communications (EC) Act be amended to speed up the licensing of government’s new broadband infrastructure company, Infraco. ITWeb reports that Ssch an amendment became apparent during the public hearings into the Infraco Bill, the law that will govern the new state-owned entity, by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises. At that time, it was realised the current licensing procedure would be too lengthy and cumbersome. However, the speed with which Cabinet approved the proposed amendment took many by surprise. Government spokesperson Themba Maseko says the urgency to meet the 2010 World Cup broadcasting requirements made the establishment of Infraco a matter of urgency.
The Rwandan government is negotiating with the South African Broadcasting Association to grant the country rights to broadcast 2010 World Cup. With the Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVBT) and a mast at Karisimbi Summit, engineers in Rwanda believe they will be able to broadcast marches live from South Africa. BVDT was among the first projects in phase1 to be implemented on the biggest antenna in the Great Lakes Region at Karisimbi Mountain. And reports coming in indicate that South Africa also intends to install BVDT to ease broadcasting the 2010 matches. Already electricity has been connected to the Summit and Fiber optic connection is complete.
The African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) has appointed the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to spearhead the marketing strategy and quality distribution of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The SABC reports that the organisation, made up of broadcasters from 20 African countries, has held its general assembly in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The SABC and the AUB signed a memorandum of understanding for financial guarantees covering broadcast rights for the World Cup.
SA’s major Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure providers are gearing up to ensure sufficient bandwidth provisioning for the broadcast demands of the 2010 World Cup, as well as for the 300 000-plus international visitors who will be relying on state-of-the-art telecommunications technology during their month’s visit. According to a Moneyweb report, with an expected investment by Government and local World Cup partners of up to R5bn, ICT for the 2010 World Cup will not only fulfil the needs for a successful World Cup but will extend far beyond 2010, potentially helping to bridge SA’s digital divide. World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, said World Cup ICT requirements extended far beyond infrastructure and facilities. He said that ICT for the World Cup is ’massive and happening’, but must be made real for all - not just for broadcasters.
SuperSport has just been reminded that in broadcasting, as in sport, you win some, lose some. Fresh from supplanting the SABC as primary broadcaster of local premiership football, the channel of champions has just lost the rights to broadcast 300 English Premiership games to sub-Saharan Africa outside SA. The Financial Mail reports that the rights have been won by two companies that have a combined subscriber base of 5 000 - 1% of SuperSport’s 500 000 subscribers on the continent excluding SA. SuperSport CE Imtiaz Patel concedes the loss ’is a big blow’ but says the group will show 1 000 matches this season. SuperSport also holds the rights to the Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, the Nigerian football league, and most African inter-club and national competitions.
Will PSL deal affect 2010 viewership? - 24/08/2007
At present, over half (55%) of South Africans say that they would not subscribe to a pay channel in order to be able to view the 2010 World Cup matches, if SuperSport is awarded broadcast rights to the games, reveals a recent dipstick by African Response. According to Bizcommunity.com, these findings stem from a short interview conducted with 399 respondents, in response to the PSL having recently awarded broadcasting rights to SuperSport, worth more than R1bn. Giving the pay channel exclusive TV rights to all PSL fixtures will mean that SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3 and e.tv will be prohibited from broadcasting any PSL soccer matches. Regardless of the fact that the case is still in arbitration, the PSL says that its decision to award the broadcast rights for all soccer matches to SuperSport, is definite.
Government demands slice of Seacom pie – 23/08/2007
The Department of Communications is demanding that the international owners of Seacom, the $500m (R3.6bn) undersea fibreoptic cable project intended to link SA with Europe and Asia, sell equity to local companies before it can operate locally. Seacom, owned by private companies from Africa and Europe, is mainly funded by Blackstone Group, the private equity firm. According to Business Report, the consortium proposed the cable to reduce international telecoms costs in SA, which relied about 80% on Sat3 cable, partly owned by Telkom. Seacom’s construction will start next month, to be finalised in time for the 2010 World Cup.
The new billion-rand television deal for the local game could see many football lovers nursing sore fingers as they hop between the various channels of the public and private broadcasters. According to a report on the IoL site, PSL will now also receive major air-time on SuperSport, who naturally swooped for the rights now that the game here is in the international spotlight thanks to World Cup 2010.
2010 to give Africa unprecedented audience – 15/08/2007
The huge number of spectators set to experience the 2010 World Cup on television and radio, will give Africa unprecedented audience. ’If only 50% of the 6.2bn world population watches the television and listens to the radio and commentaries, then no amount of investment in advertising, marketing and sales can capture the magnitude of such (an) audience for Africa,’ said Ben Egbuna, President
of the African Union of Broadcasting and Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria. Addressing the second National Communication Partnership Conference, Egbuna said the African media has a duty to use 2010 as an opportunity to counter the wrong perceptions and highlight positive images and values about Africa. According to a report on the allAfrica.com site, the conference brings together marketers, communicators and other interested stakeholders across Africa to discuss ways of seizing communication opportunities during the 2010 World Cup.
MultiChoice recently launched a trial Web site offering video content from selected local DStv channels, which can be streamed or downloaded to a Personal Computer. Over a two month period, employees within the group companies participated in the first phase of the trial to test the technical capabilities of the Web site. Local content that trialists found popular included sport highlights clips, local soapies as well as Carte Blanche. Media Update reports that MultiChoice’s newest company DStv Mobile, is currently investigating and trialing technologies that will play a significant role in the transmission of the 2010 World Cup; namely DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld). A mobile broadcast technology that allows for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to a mobile phone.
SCP Worldwide to assist with 2010 sales - 07/08/2007
US-based GolTV on Tuesday announced that it will help SCP Worldwide on the sales, marketing and distribution of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Eufootball.biz reports that the package will include matches from the South American federations. SCP Worldwide owns all terrestrial, cable, satellite, broadband/internet, wireless, video- on-demand, PPV, DVD and downloadable device rights to each match. Qualifying begins in October 2007 and lasts until November 2009.
Telkom on board as official supporter - 07/08/2007
Telkom will be providing the fixed-line telecommunications backbone for the 2010 World Cup. This was formalised on Tuesday when Telkom became a National Supporter of the 2010 FIFA World Cup following a signing ceremony between FIFA General Secretary, Jerome Valcke, and Telkom’s acting CE, Reuben September, at SAFA House in Johannesburg. MyBroadband reports that a National Supporter is a tier 3 sponsorship that grants Telkom a package of advertising, promotional and marketing rights that are exercisable within the borders of South Africa. Telkom’s deal with FIFA requires the company to provide FIFA with the fixed-line network infrastructure to support the broadcast of the 2010 World Cup.
R1.25bn deal for PSL - 04/08/2007
The PSL is expected to tie-up sponsorship deals to the tune of R1.25bn by the end of the week. City Press reports that this comes on the back of the ground-breaking R1.6bn television broadcast deal the league entered into with SuperSport International. Insiders say the league is now negotiating from a position of power due to the lucrative television deal that offers sponsors more exposure and more value for their money. It is said because of the television deal that saw the league net four times more than what it got previously, they have pitched their tent at not less than three times what they were previously getting from their sponsors. League chairperson Irvin Khoza said it was imperative for the PSL to leverage the fact that the 2010 World Cup is coming to SA by making more money. ’There will never be a better opportunity,’ he said. ’We want to make ours the preferred league on the continent, seeing that we are the best in terms of sponsorship.’
Trevor Phillips has completed his second stint as CE of the PSL, with his successor Norwegian Kjetil Siem set to take arrive in SA on either 8 or 9 August. As he did after his first spell, Phillips leaves the league in a far better condition that when he took up the post. According to a SA Info report, the PSL, under Phillips, has been turned from an organization heavily in debt to one that now consistently reports a healthy profit. When he assumed office, the PSL was R60m in debt. Its annual profit is now around R20m. Recently, the PSL signed a television deal with SuperSport. Worth R1.6bn, and it took the PSL into the top 15 ranked leagues in the world in terms of commercial broadcast deals. Considering the massively expanded television deal, one would think that SAB would be enthusiastic to continue to sponsor the league. On top of that, SA will be hosting the World Cup in 2010, and the eyes of the world have already started shifting towards the game in the Rainbow Nation.
South Africa is planning a $700m submarine cable to cut the costs of accessing high-speed Internet. The cable, to run from Durban to South America and London, will increase international bandwidth capacity.
The initiative is being driven by the department of public enterprises as an international leg of Infraco, the state-owned broadband infrastructure firm formed last year to lease capacity exclusively to Neotel for four years. But the international part of Infraco will be open to other telecoms firms including Telkom, which is said to be interested in a big slice of the project. With the huge demand of internet bandwidth and the expected demand from the 2010 World Cup, South Africa needs a cable system that offers high capacity as Sat3 could be running out of capacity.
Supersport has confirmed that DStv subscribers will enjoy more than 1 000 football games in the upcoming 2007/2008 international season, part of DStv’s unparalleled multi-channel sports offering. As part of it commitment to offer subscribers across Africa the best possible football coverage, SuperSport has successfully negotiated the rights to even more football. ’We have also secured the rights to more than 100 World Cup 2010 qualifiers,’ said Andre Venter, director of operations for SuperSport. Football fans also have access to the highest quality analysis from an in-studio team of veteran continental television personalities, including several prominent former sports stars such as Gary Bailey, Kalusha Bwalya, Abedi Pele, Sean Bartlett, Eddie Lewis, Terry Paine, Augustine Eguavoen, Segun Odegbami and Idah Peterside.
The second national operator`s role in the provision of technology services for the 2010 tournament has yet to be defined. ICT providers, and Neotel in particular, have not been sidelined in the awarding of multimillion-rand contracts to provide technology services for the 2010 World Cup, says the Department of Communications. It says second national operator Neotel is now a member of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Committee, which is involved in the overall planning of the event.
Communications department spokesman Albi Modise could not elaborate on the role Neotel will play in providing technology services for the games. MyDigitalLife reports that he says the second national operator`s role has yet to be clarified by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Committee. However, Telkom has already bagged the major contract to provide connectivity, while Sentech will provide wireless redundancy services to meet FIFA guarantees.
World Cup 2010 contracts for broadcasting and information and communication technology (ICTs) were based on ’tried and tested infrastructure’, the Department of Communications said on Friday. Spokesman Albi Modise said Telkom, the SABC and Sentech were contracted through an International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) process. ’They were not given preferential treatment over everyone else. The ICT infrastructure requirements were determined by FIFA during the bidding process, Modise said. ’It was following this bidding process that FIFA ultimately contracted the current service providers for its ICT requirements based on existing tried and tested infrastructure these organisations had during the bidding process.’ The Citizen reports that Telkom and Sentech participated in a 2003 inspection visit - a time when Telkom was the only fixed-line national operator.
Two 20 Gbps connections to each stadium, Satellite uplinks via Sentech and the SABC having obtained sole rights to radio and TV signals in SA for the 2010 World Cup event. These are the details, supplied by an anonymous source, that have emerged about a recent 2010 World Cup ICT Committee meeting. According to the source, each 2010 stadium will be equipped with two 20 Gbps connections to serve its bandwidth needs. This contract has apparently been given to Telkom already which raised questions as to why this was the case. The information further suggests that Sentech will supply each of the World Cup stadiums with satellite uplinks. According to a MyADSL.co.za report, apart from the stadiums, all other World Cup venues will also have to be served with suitable fiber connections which will be supplied by Telkom, Neotel, Sentech and InfraCo.
With competitors breathing down its neck, Multichoice is making sure it stays ahead of the pack. Sometime in October, a few select South Africans are going to have a glimpse of the future — they will be MultiChoice engineers who get to watch the next generation of television, high-definition TV. High-definition TV, or HDTV, is rightly being hailed as a major innovation in broadcasting. Until you have seen HDTV, you can’t grasp what all the fuss is about. See it next to ordinary TV and you’re an instant believer. It has a resolution five times better than current TV. The Times reports that a demo last week at which a Six Nations rugby was shown, was remarkable for crisper images, no ghosting of running players and sharp faces in the crowd . HDTV must be up and running by the 2010 World Cup because it’s availability is part of the licence agreement with Fifa. So we can expect some shows, most likely sport, some time before that. And by 2015, signal distributor Sentech will have switched over to digital signals for terrestrial TV, ending at last the era of analogue TV broadcasting.
While television screens in store trumpet their ’HD-readiness’, the reality is that you might be kept waiting for quite some time before you can receive broadcasts which take advantage of this capability. Behind the screen, a technological revolution which faces among other things, the need for massive capital investment, has to take place. Unless a catalyst of some sort forces the hand of those in charge of filling the airwaves with interesting programming, you will just have to wait. But just such a catalyst is brewing right now, right under our noses. It’s the 2010 World Cup, says Andy Brauer, Business Connexion chief technology officer. ’As it ushers in a new era of viewing pleasure, HDTV will place new demands on the infrastructure necessary for the creation and transmission of TV programmes.’
Still no broadcasting rights deal - 04/07/2007
They emerged after four hours of negotiating at Johannesburg’s plush Westcliff Hotel on Wednesday like two long-lost buddies after a reunion - but SuperSport CE Imtiaz Patel and his SABC counterpart, Dali Mpofu, proclaimed there was still ’no deal’ between the two broadcasters over the PSL’s controversial TV rights. Still, there was sufficient evidence to suggest a fair amount of progress had been made since Mpofu declared SuperSport’s awesome R1.3bn sponsorship for the right to televise PSL games over the next five years was nothing more than ’a sham’ and something akin to sabotaging a soccer-mad nation. According to a report on the News24 site, SuperSport have since brought home the soothing message that they are happy to sell off as many as 140 PSL games - including Cup Finals and the big derbies - for free-to-air viewing by SABC and E-TV.
The LOC has come out in support of the PSL’s decision to award soccer broadcasting rights to SuperSport instead of to the SABC. Business Day reports that Tim Modise, chief communications officer for the committee, said deals of this nature were an indication of the growing interest in local soccer ahead of the World Cup. He was speaking at a Soccerex Trade Commission lunch to discuss business opportunities in SA for foreign companies during this year’s soccer exhibition. Modise said that the country would invest R21bn in the World Cup, which was expected to bring R51bn into the economy.
The City of Cape Town is considering a municipal optic fibre infrastructure, which will provide a massive boost to the local economy, as well as drastically reducing the City’s communications costs. According to a SA Cities report, the broadband network was first proposed last year, and a committee has now been set up to look into the project. The aim is to have the network ready by 2009, in time for the 2010 World Cup. The network is expected to cost about R400m, which will be offset by the creation of an estimated 95 000 jobs, a contribution of R4bn to the local economy, and cheaper telecommunications costs. The City proposes laying 360km of fibre optic cables, which will first be used by the City administration to link its own key buildings and sites to be used for 2010, and then expand to other sites. It will also manage this network as public infrastructure for use by private telecommunications companies.
Data storage for home, small business and laptop users is about to enter another explosive growth stage, says Tony Scott, product director at Spectrum Multimedia. Solid state drives are being introduced into laptops less than one tenth of the size of a standard drive. According to an IT-Online report, this could make laptops half their current size. Presently, the disk drive in a laptop takes up about 30% of the internal space. In terms of video recording and television, SA is moving to HD-TV. SA must broadcast the 2010 World Cup in HD-TV format and this means that technology will become the broadcast standard in the future. Data capacity requirements will increase 10-fold. A single movie or soccer game could require 10Gb of storage for HD-TV. Currently the capacity required is about 1Gb.
Digital Terrestrial Television, more widely known as DTT is undoubtedly making some significant inroads in a world previously dominated by analogue transmissions. According to a Filmmaker.co.za report, together with SA’s rollout, which is currently in its second year, other countries such as the UK, Italy Germany, France and Sweden are already enjoying the myriad of benefits that come with DTT. Indeed, with prominent world bodies such as the European Union recommending that its member states cease to transmit in analogue by 2015, SA’s DTT migration is promising to be one of the most significant technology advancements of recent years. ’The first phase of DTT switch-on will essentially entail the country’s main metropolitan areas with second phase earmarked for completion before the Fifa World Cup in 2010. At that time at least 78% of the country’s population will have access to DTT services,’ said Frans Lindeque, Executive; Digital Services at Sentech.
Relations between the SABC and pay channel Supersport, who snatched the PSL television rights money-spinner from the natio nal broadcaster’s grip, have turned nasty. Sunday World reports that this has emerged from the mudslinging match that the SABC failed to put an offer on the table because it was still negotiating an English Premiership deal and wanted to give the local PSL the crumbs. While the SABC was busy paying billions, first for the rights to English Premiership games and then the 2010 World Cup, SuperSport was eyeing the local game.
Four members of the Premier Soccer League executive committee stand to earn more than R30m each in commission, after awarding pay-television channel SuperSport the lucrative broadcast rights deal, says a Sunday Times report. PSL chairman Irvin Khoza and his team, Kaizer Motaung, Trevor Phillips, Mato Madlala and consultant Peter Mancer, are all in line for a share of an estimated R160m in commission for clinching the controversial deal with SuperSport. The five-year contract has been the centre of court action by the SABC. Meanwhile, according to an SABC News report, the SABC and the Premier Soccer League have begun talks on the broadcast rights issue. Khoza, the PSL chairperson, and Eddie Funde, the chairperson of the SABC Board, will meet again today (Monday) in an attempt to resolve the matter.
