The group is likely to collate content from all of its properties into this platform.
South African media group eMedia has announced plans to launch a video-on-demand service called ‘eVOD’ in July. The privately-owned group holds a few television and radio broadcasting businesses such as eNCA, OpenView, and Yfm, together with production studios.
It has originally planned to call its video streaming service ‘Openview Plus’ as a content extension of its existing free-to-air, direct-to-home (DTH) satellite-TV service.
In a statement, eMedia Holdings said that it had closed various non-core assets, which now has allowed the organisation to focus on its core business: broadcasting, content creation, and being a platform and technology provider for broadcast services.
Earlier in its annual financial results for the year that ended 31 March 2021, the company said: “The new financial year will also see the launch of the group’s over-the-top (OTT) service eVOD in July 2021.”
It didn’t specify any eVOD pricing or reveal any further details about its planned video streaming service and whether it would be using a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) model, or if it will go the advertiser-funded “freemium” route.
The company said that South Africa’s “television market is facing numerous technology and viewership challenges which will require the group to continually assess its strategic alternatives”.
It has recently launched its Openview Connect dongle as a new broadband internet service – something that will help to carry and funnel eVOD as a content service into viewers’ internet-connected homes.
The streaming service will compete with a crowded space of VOD services available in South Africa, including Netflix, MultiChoice’s Showmax, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Acorn, Vodacom’s Video Play, Telkom One, Viu and a few smaller services.
