Super 5 Media’s pay-TV and broadband plans

Staff Writer;04 May, 2010

Super 5 Media planning to launch pay-TV and broadband offerings from next month, rivaling TopTV and DStv

The launch of On Digital Media’s TopTV offering last week has attracted a tremendous amount of attention, with demand for the newly launched offering far outstripping supply.

All of TopTV’s decoders were sold out within the first day of launch, and the company’s call centre buckled under the load of new subscribers trying to sign up for the service.

Another pay-TV licensee, Super 5 Media, is now set to join the pay-TV battle next month. Techcentral reported that Super 5 Media is set to go live on 1 June, and is planning to bring both satellite pay-TV services and copper & fibre based TV and broadband offerings.

According to the Super 5 website the company has a commercial satellite and cable subscription broadcast licence that allows it to operate both a satellite pay-TV service and an IPTV service in South Africa.

“Super 5 Media’s focus is to provide converged services in the Information, Communications and Entertainment environment in order to stimulate demand for entertainment services in South Africa,” the company says.

Techcentral further reports that Super 5 Media has secured 2 Gbps on SEACOM through Information Bearing Signals, something which gives a clear indication of the company’s broadband ambitions.

Super 5 Media was formed after Telkom SA sold its 75% stake in Telkom Media to a consortium of local and international entities, and it was always Telkom Media’s intention to offer IPTV services using Telkom’s ADSL network.

This ‘double play’ TV-broadband strategy by Super 5 Media is therefore keeping in line with Telkom Media’s initial plans to offer services like video-on-demand, music downloads, interactive services, Internet access, live events and user & community generated content in addition to standard pay-TV services.

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/12279-Super-Medias-pay--and-broadband-plans.html

Interesting...

Looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

Shi!The Chinese better not disappoint.Hopefully it isn't too late to capture a reasonable slice of the market.

any ideas on the offer?

They didn't launch...again. And they're ignoring the media. I think I'll avoid their product, too, should it ever launch.

What is it with companies in this country announcing their OWN launch dates and then completely cocking it up and missing it.

The question is.. How will they compete with DSTV? TopTV doesn't have the good channels that DSTV provides.. If they can hook up with SuperSport, that will be a gooood bonus!!!

Well, regardless TopTV's performance has been phenomenal. I mean, having already signed up 70 000 customers far exceeded their and Multichoice's expectations.

I posted an article in the TopTV thread in which TopTV mentioned that they initially didn't want to directly compete with DStv, but they now realise that many of their customers are ex-DStv or dual DSTv/TopTV subscribers, so they have to deliver sufficient content in order to satisfy their needs. Apart from their own new channels they have lined up, they were recently in the US sourcing the latest new shows for their channels, as well as new channels for their total offering.

besides Super 5 media and Walking on Water, are there any other satellite providers still to start broadcasting, or is this now everyone?

That's everyone from what I know.

Hmmm....I wonder if ICASA intend to tender out anymore new satellite licenses in the future. I think there must still be demand from the population.

Sad.

Super 5 Media's ''complete state of collapse'', ''implosion'' could signal the end of its pay TV pipe dream.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Fv90J7eTcis/TFCP9IDqMQI/AAAAAAAAF98/_r8KKavXd0s/s320/Copy+of+Super5Media+logo_2009_broken.JPG

Super 5 Media, formerly Telkom Media - that received a licence but made several false promises of starting a pay TV service in South Africa - is in a ''complete state of collapse'', ''basically now just an empty shell'' and ''breaking up like an iceberg over the past few months before our eyes''. So says disillusioned former, and disillusioned current (and sad!) employees of the Centurion based company that had dreams of becoming one of the new pay TV operators in the country. Meanwhile Super 5 Media refuse to respond – if it is that there's even still anybody left to pick up a phone.

Super 5 Media as I've told you RIGHT HERE exactly a month ago, is simply not responding in any way to media enquiries and is on the verge of losing its licence that was granted to it by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) way back in 2007. Super 5 Media which is 75% owned by Shenzhen Media must start a viable pay TV service by the end of September 2010 or lose its licence permanently – which as things stands now, will most likely happen. Millions of rands has been sunk into this once optimistic venture over the past four years with Super 5 Media now having virtually nothing to show for it. Telkom Media was once primed by industry experts as the frontrunner to be the first rival of those granted Icasa licences to start a viable pay TV business as competition for the then-incumbent MultiChoice. Not only did On Digital Media (ODM) start its TopTV service in May to claim this honour, but Super 5 Media is languishing in a debilitating and self-destructive void of inoperability while it has been sucking up countless millions over the past few years without discernably moving any closer to providing any tangible pay TV product launch(es) - despite hollow promises.

Repeated, ongoing attempts to get comment from Super 5 Media are still unsuccessful. Former workers who were fired, took voluntary severance packages the last few months in the umpteenth shedding of workers since Telkom Media became Super 5 Media. A few who are not sure if they still have work (since they were told not to come in to work anymore) tells me Super 5 Media is ''basically now just an empty shell'' and that it seems – according to one worker who left very recently – ''that Super 5 Media is in a complete state of collapse''. Another former worker said the company has basically ''let everyone go. There's very little left. There's very little actual people left. The last few months Super 5 Media has basically been one protracted implosion on every conceivable level.'' Yet another former Super 5 Media worker said, ''It's sad. It seems like the end. There's not enough left [at Super 5 Media] to really do anything with anymore, really. Basically everyone and everything is gone.''

Source: TV with Thinus (http://teeveetee.blogspot.com/)

This is sad... but I think we were all expecting something like this after they missed their own self-imposed deadline.

Give it up, already.

Super 5 Media gets pay-TV launch extension
MyBroadband | 02 September, 2010

Super 5 Media, the pay-TV entrant which is licensed to compete against DStv and Top TV, has received a six month extension from ICASA to launch services

Super 5 Media, formerly known as Telkom Media, has received a six month extension to launch services by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

Super 5 Media was supposed to launch pay-TV services in South Africa before the end of August 2010, but the company argued that delays in licensing meant it could not meet this deadline.

“It is true that Super5Media has been granted a six months extension to launch its Pay-TV services from August 2010,” said ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka.

“In its written submission, the company stated that its application for an Individual Electronic Communications Network Service licence to self-provide is yet to be finalized by the Authority. The company says that it intends to provide its own signal distribution for the service.”

The additional time afforded to Super 5 Media is the second extension which the company received after it was unable to meet the initial deadline of launching services by February 2010.

This may however all be of academic value. Techcentral reported in July that Super 5 Media “has all but collapsed”, revealing that the company has “sent its employees — those that haven’t been retrenched — home on unpaid leave”.

It is unclear why Super 5 Media would go through the trouble of applying for a license extension on launching pay-TV services if the company is no longer operational.

Source: MyBroadband (http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/14907-Super-Media-gets-pay--launch-extension.html)

if it fails to meet that i hope it is offered to someone else?

I don't think it works that way. From what I understand they allocate a couple of licenses every few years to interested parties through a bidding process. They may not want to accept bids for a single license, but instead wait until the next round of license allocations and deal with them all at once.