South Africa - Broadcasting

Synopsis

South Africa has spearheaded a broadcasting revolution in Africa and plays host to key pan-African content providers, signal distributors and infrastructure suppliers. Following the transition from the apartheid regime, the broadcasting sector has been liberalised with the entry of private, commercially oriented broadcast radio and TV stations. The national broadcaster SABC is being reorganised into a public and a commercial division. Annual growth of the broadcasting sector since 1996 is estimated at around 12%. Interactive TV, especially the variety powered by SMS text messaging via the mobile phone networks, had developed into a multi-million Rand business by 2004, and Telkom SA is planning to introduce converged Triple-Play services during 2005. This report provides pertinent statistics, developments and profiles on major players in South Africa’s television broadcasting sector.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. South Africa’s broadcasting market
  • 2.1 Overview of television industry
  • 2.2 Trends in TV broadcasting
• 3. Regulatory environment
  • 3.1 Broadcasting Act 1999
  • 3.2 Broadcasting Amendment Act 2002
• 4. Free-to-air broadcasting
  • 4.1 South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)
    • 4.1.1 TV licences
    • 4.1.2 SABC reorganisation 2004
  • 4.2 e tv
• 5. Pay TV
  • 5.1 Market overview
  • 5.2 M-Net and MultiChoice Africa
    • 5.2.1 DStv
• 6. Digital TV
  • 6.1 Overview
  • 6.2 Digital satellite TV
• 7. Broadcast signal distributors
  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 Orbicom
  • 7.3 Sentech
    • 7.3.1 InfoSat
• 8. PanAmSat satellite services
  • 8.1 Overview
• 9. Interactive TV (iTV)
  • 9.1 MultiChoice iTV
  • 9.2 iTV using SMS
  • 9.3 Business TV
• 10. Triple Play
• 11. Related reports