Delays to South Africa’s digital TV migration and poor regulation have put SA’s free TV sector in crisis, argues E-tv’s CEO

“Free TV is in crisis,” CEO of E-tv, Marcel Golding told attendees at the launch of Sentech’s Freevision satellite TV platform.

If the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) does not intervene, Golding said, there will be a rapid decline in the quality and quantity for free television broadcasters.

“Free TV will increasingly become hostage to pay TV operators,” Golding said.

He said that all the statements from E-tv around the migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) that have been reported in the press are about the survival of free-to-air broadcasting in South Africa.

“The irony of all of this is that the most watched channels on pay TV platforms are free to air channels,” Golding said to applause from the audience.

Source: MyBroadband – Jan Vermeulen