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Johannesburg - Pay television operator On Digital Media (ODM) has provided details of the service it plans to launch in South Africa in May.
In an exclusive interview with Fin24.com, it was disclosed that pay television channel bouquets will be priced from R99 to R249 a month.
ODM will provide a range of both local and international television channels, including Fox Entertainment and MGM.
Said CEO of ODM Vino Govender: "We're acquiring a lot of stuff internationally, and creating seven local channels that will broadcast both locally-produced and international content."
Govender said that ODM would not compete head-to-head with Multichoice's DStv service.
"We're creating a more affordable product in the second pay-TV window. We buy the content post-Multichoice before it goes free-to-air, and therefore offer it at a much better price," said Govender.
"Our product is designed to offer more choice and affordability."
Govender also disclosed that:
- ODM will provide Fox Entertainment, MGM and other international channels for the first time in SA.
- Packages will begin at R99 for a basic package with 30 channels, and range up to R249 for a premium package with a full range of channels grouped by genre.
- ODM is in discussions with Multichoice to explore the possibility of acquiring content from DStv.
- Customers will be able to use existing DStv satellite dishes with the ODM service, but the dish will have to be repositioned.
- ODM recommends a 75cm dish and the ODM service has been designed to be more stable in bad weather than DStv.
- ODM's satellite footprint runs from northern Nigeria to Cape Town.
- ODM decoders are being provided by UEC, a division of the Altech Group.
- ODM plans to launch a PVR decoder within 12 months from launch.
- The electronic programme guide (EPG) for ODM has been designed by the NDS Group, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is more sophisticated than what is used by Multichoice, according to Govender.
Govender said that ODM's market research suggests that many Multichoice subscribers will look at purchasing an ODM decoder and service to complement DStv and gain access to channels that are not available from the Multichoice service.
"There are roughly 10.5 million television households in South Africa. Multichoice has chewed up about two million of those - so there are about eight million that cannot afford pay-TV at the moment.
"In our view, our core target market is about three million of those eight million," he said.
"Our main mission is to take pay-TV to the middle income group, who haven't been able to access multi-channel environments before," added Govender.
Sport propositions
While ODM will not provide rugby, cricket or PSL football at launch, Govender explained that ODM would gain rights to niche sporting content such as martial arts.
"Sport drives about 40% of Multichoice's market, the rest is general entertainment. Sporting rights to things like the PSL and the English Premier League can run into hundreds of millions of dollars and our market just can't afford it. But we do have some interesting sport propositions on the table," said Govender.
"The sport products we will put on the table will be sufficient to support our viewer's needs. We'll have one channel on our package at launch that will have key sports highlights on it and then other channels with things like UFC Fighting, some soccer rights that haven't been taken, basketball and other content that Multichoice hasn't set its sights on," he added.
Govender said that ODM would also pursue rights for other sports as the contracts with Multichoice expire and become available.
ODM shareholders include First National Media Investment Holdings (28%), Cosatu's investment arm Kopano Ke Matla (20%), SES Astra (20%), the Industrial Development Corporation (10%), National Empowerment Fund (10%), First A1 investments (10%) and former Multichoice executive Mervin Moodley (1%).
- Fin24.com
