Recap To The Decade: TopTV's Abrupt Cancellation And Transition To StarSat + Possible Acquisition By MultiChoice And Zuku TV

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With Canal+ looking to acquire MultiChoice there's been concerns from various consumers on the intentions of the French company. Following, StarTimes hold on TopTV (now StarSat), it lurks under the shadow of its previous iteration with less media coverage. 

TopTV was a South African pay-tv platform operated by On Digital Media which served as a rival to MultiChoice's DStv. It promised to offer consumers affordable price rates by letting them pay for a selection of entertainment something not seen on DStv. 

Variety was available across every price plan for R99p/m which was home to free-to-air channels SABC 1-3 and e.tv alongside other entertainment ranging from sports like Eurosport News and Senata Sports and news from BBC News and Al Jazeera. 

These consumers were given an option between Kiss and JimJam from Kids & Music, Discovery Science and FOX Retro from Entertainment & Knowledge, and Showtime and FX from Ultimate Movies.

During its span, TopTV was able to lure at least 300,000 subscribers and got a lot of media coverage. Similar to StarSat, there was a lack of communication with the media over the inclusion of content and TV channels.

Similar to the likes of eMedia Investments, TopTV came with their own branded TV channels such as Top One (general entertainment), Top History (factual), Top Junior (kids) and Top Movies. Most of which were scrapped following the pay-tv company's money woes.

Change in ownership/help from DStv

In 2012, TopTV had gone into business rescue under Companies Act behind on debt and in need of cash needed help from another party which most were eyeing to be South African. 

In 2013, Dynamic TV was the only bidder based in South Africa that was looking to acquire TopTV. It was formed by Given Mkhari's MSG Afrika and Malose Kekana's Falk Trading who had gotten "financial help" from MultiChoice to acquire the pay-tv company. 

It's likely that TopTV could have merged with DStv or rebranded to GOtv as MultiChoice were open to pumping out close to R370 million a year. Other suitors included Zuku TV's owners Wananchi Group meaning they wouldn't have been exclusive to West Africa. 

StarTimes was only successful to acquire TopTV as Dynamic TV and Wananchi Group failed to make their offers on time. Shareholders were desperate for a possible deal and reviewed StarTimes offer before making them their new business partner. 

More battles ahead 

News of StarTimes takeover of TopTV was met with poor reception from workers who feared the overloading of "poor Chinese content". A few shareholders within ODM had taken StarTimes to court regarding its takeover of the TopTV trademark. 

Amidst this StarTimes was looking to unveil the new packages and TV channels set to be rolled out on StarSat. Despite the outcome of the court, StarTimes was able to exercise their 65% hold of the company and unveil the new packages and TV channels to debut.

This garnered a lot of media coverage after reports surfaced of porn being part of this lineup which had heavily been bombarded on TopTV. This consisted of Desire TV, Playboy TV and Private Spice all of which are available at an additional charge.

ICASA saw no problem with the inclusion of porn as it didn't form part of StarSat's other offering with the other pertaining to the broadcast times 20:00 viewed by adults. Other parties such as the Doctors For Life had filed lawsuits with various other law enforcement.

StarSat was forced to pull these channels by 2014 (with license revoked) and they resurfaced sometime later. The Justice Alliance of SA (Jasa) was looking to fine the broadcaster R60,000 but ICASA reduced it to R25,000 as they broadcast without approval. 

Conclusion: TopTV's demise could have been prevented 

TopTV was poorly structured during its run despite housing premium entertainment brands like FX and Showtime. They offered a chunk of add-ons part of which likely went unnoticed by viewers as they continued pumping gas in the fuel tank.

StarTimes had identified these flaws and opted to restructure the packages in a similar form to those viewed in Africa and seen on MultiChoice's DStv. They paid up various debts TopTV owed to various companies and retained part of its offering.

TopTV had about 300,000 subscribers before migrating to StarSat and when you look at it they could have minimized their offering. They were moving very quickly to edge out MultiChoice knowing how little consumption numbers were at the time.

MultiChoice by this period had at least 3 million DStv customers within South Africa. 

What Happened To Trace Sport Stars?

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Trace Sports Stars is a lifestyle channel that celebrated the life of sports through factual entertainment, reality shows and gossip similar to E! operated by NBCUniversal. The channel supplies various originals such as Up Close, Bad Boys In Sports and Football Stars.

The channel was added in 2011/2 on Sky UK and MultiChoice's DStv across Africa as Trace Sports. Two years later, it went dark in the UK which coincides with the rebrand to Trace Sports Stars as they didn't offer live sports and the name didn't coincide with the offering.

When looking at a brand name like Trace Sports, one would assume they'd play actual sports like English Premier League, La Liga and WWE and although the content is focused solely on that topic. It just didn't really stick with some consumers.

In general, Trace Sports Stars was a wreck not because the channel couldn't get fresh content as it did possess potential but likely due to the fact that this type of content promoted by the channel isn't watched by vast majority as seen with the actual sporting events.

That in mind is what led to it's demise on MultiChoice's DStv with Trace Africa coming in place and at that time it was made available on rivals On Digital Media and StarTimes' StarSat and eMedia Investments' Openview platform.

This was Openview's first attempt at anything sports with StarSat offering a platform to reject channels or affordable entertainment. But of course, both brands ended scrapping the channel before 2018 for similar reasons as MultiChoice - viewership.

As of 2023, Trace Sports Stars is not viewable anywhere in Africa but that doesn't mean the channel is completely lost as it can be obtained on Binge Networks (USA), Sky (Mexico), Viaccess-Orca (France) and NTV Plus (Russia).

To be frank, Trace Sports Stars remains sustainable if anything it's not performing as well as it's musical family Trace Urban, Trace Gospel, Trace Toca, Trace Mziki and Trace Naija all of which are viewable on MultiChoice's DStv in selected territories.

Review: StarSat Trying To Be DStv Friendly As Traditional TV Is Dying

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StarSat is pay-tv platform owned by On Digital Media and StarTimes which served as one of the few competitors available for the monopolized MultiChoice's DStv platform in South Africa offering cheaper alternatives to consumers which some find unappealing.

Sure the platform has a range of premium channels such as TNT, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN 1 & 2. But that's the thing, there isn't a lot of that or at least not for South Africans as other consumers have Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Either way consumers from these regions have been just as pissed as everyone else as the platform lost or scrapped several channels ranging from Real Time, Fine Living, Investigation Discovery from Warner Bros. Discovery to FOX from The Walt Disney Company.

For nearly 2 years, viewers had been fed the same crap every year that these channels would eventually get replaced but never do and when something does launch its likely crappy channels like C12TV or JIB TV or thematic like Zee Bollymovies.

Point being made this platform is being viewed less and less of a DStv competitor I mean it does still give alternatives as there's a lot of Bollywood content and telenovelas to explore other than that consumers feel they aren't getting money's worth.

I get it's meant to be cheap or at least on the part by On Digital Media but the brand needs a lot of improvements something I'm not holding my breath on as this has been long overdue from the moment it replaced Top TV and it's become more transparent now.

But after seeing them promote something like SABC 1 and eExtra not saying they're bad channels but pay-tv platforms usually give alternatives I mean one of the reasons you hardly see MultiChoice promote or mention them on their ratings sheet or when promoting a product.

I mean it's on the platform so why not promote it but lately I feel that StarSat is trying to be DStv friendly kind of like how Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service Discovery+ has become streaming friendly.

What that means is they're trying to offer a service and sustaining it without making one or the other feel superior but with Openview+ coming in I wouldn't be shocked if it joined those forgotten or lost DStv competitors in South Africa as there's less premium and more mass.

BYUtv Offers The Very Best In Kids And Family Entertainment, Could DStv, StarSat Or Openview Perhaps Get It?

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With family at its core, BYUtv - a non-commercial, value-based television network - brings inspiring and uplifting entertainment into million of homes across the nation through cable, their website or on the app. BYUtv has a place for everyone -- together.

BYUtv produces shows under several categories: BYU Sports, Campus, Documentary, Faith, Family, Lifestyle, People, and Performing Arts. This includes original series, documentaries and religious service programs, along with family and faith-based films from several major studios.

Some notable original series include Studio C, Random Acts, All-Round Champion, Relative Race and Wayne Brady's Comedy IQ.

StarTimes and On Digital Media once provided a religious channel Smile TV operated by Trinity Broadcasting Network. This channel would have made a suitable alternative had they considered replacing the channel the moment TBN opted not to supply it.

MultiChoice is set to lose a pair of channels in the near future - Disney Channel and Disney Junior. With that entail, an alternative will be needed in order to keep viewer's minds at ease. BYUtv can make up for the soon to be lost live-action slate on Disney Channel.

eMedia Investments once offered the Da Vinci educational channel on the Openview platform until it formed one of their never ending attempts to save money. BYUtv could make up for the lost factual content especially now that Openview+ is on the cards.

Why Fan-Favourite Sports Channel Is Not Available On Pay Platforms

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In 2021, the isolated SABC Sport channel on the DTT platform was made available to Openview consumers as part of a deal made by the public broadcaster and eMedia Investments which included two more channels and 19 radio stations.

Years prior, SABC Sport made its OTT debut on Telkom's streaming service TelkomOne under a similar agreement with the public broadcaster within it included the 19 radio stations, SABC Education and likely any upcoming channel(s).

Since it's availability to free-to-air consumers, SABC Sport has become the top 10 watched channels on Openview and since then sourced several content outside of SABC 1-3 which includes the best of ESPN and Racing240 and all of that just triggered a certain pay-tv brand, SuperSport.

SuperSport is a sports division of M-Net which houses the biggest sports brands like Premier League, La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Moto GP, WWE, Wimbledon, PGA Tour. Point is they are the biggest sports brands in Africa.

Unfortunately, due to all these prestige over the brand only a handful of matches are accessible to lower masses and those excluded rely on the SABC for some of these matches.

In the beginning, consumers no matter the platform would have access to these matches but following the official launch of SABC Sport that all changed as SuperSport exclusive matches would only be screened on the DStv and DTT platform with TelkomOne and Openview blocked from seeing any of these matches.

If you look at the tactic here, they're basically trying to boost the consumer numbers on their platforms as they experience a decline in DStv Premium and Compact consumers and also with streaming taking over they want to level the playing field.

Since then the public broadcaster had filed an application accusing SuperSport of being anti-competitive in a similar stature to eMedia Investments when their channels where pulled from the DStv platform.

Taking that to account, why would MultiChoice want a channel that rebroadcast SuperSport content especially if it means more consumers will likely downgrade if it means paying less for premium content.

Some of the content that was restricted to TelkomOne and Openview were also excluded from SABC Sport imagine if the channel was already on DStv with those restrictions attached when consumers who missed out would hope to catch-up or rehash some past content.

Boomerang Vs. Toonami Vs. Boing: Most Likely To Get Chopped

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Boomerang, Toonami and Boing are animation brands within Warner Bros. Discovery's portfolio that cater to kids and youth adults but to better understand them it's best to explain each of them individually in detail.

Boomerang is a children's brand that caters to viewers aged 4-7 with shows like Masha And The Bear, Grizzy And The Lemmings and The Happos Family while as carrying content for the whole family to enjoy like Looney Tunes Cartoons, Mr. Magoo and Zig & Sharko.

Toonami is an action driven channel for young adults featuring various animation from DC's superheroes like Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Justice League and Teen Titans. Accompanying the league of DC characters is anime like Hero Academia and Dragonball.

Boing is basically another Nicktoons as it features a classic set of content like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Johnny Bravo and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends while as being used a brand for CN's forgotten or reject shows like Angelo Rules, Oswaldo and The Jungle Bunch.

In short, Boomerang is the best place for laughter while Toonami caters for comic book fans and people in the mood for some action and Boing travels back in time to the place where it all began with old favorites while blending to the modern society.

Unfortunately with all these traits come some minor flaws of which these 3 all have in common. Although each have a role to play, it's more transparent the more you watch but I feel it's best to bring it up.

On a year to year basis, Warner Bros. Discovery invests a certain amount of airtime on their channels with Boomerang and Cartoon Network getting the most Investment seeing as they're more acknowledged compared to Boing and Toonami.

In terms of content, Boomerang doesn't have a lot of noticable shows just gags which can help pass the time but that's as far as it goes. Just like Toonami, it can be irritating on how these shows rollout and how long it takes before you can get anything worthwhile.

Boing is just another repeats channel if anything it kind of rectifies the errors of Boomerang and Toonami. After all, the lineup adjusts constantly you don't have to wait several months or a year to find something worthwhile but that's just the perks of being a Nicktoons which can be substituted.

If there's any channel that would likely get chopped in this instance, it would have to be these three as it is Warner Bros. Discovery is cost cutting and I'm not saying they won't be much left on these stations or we'll see less content but 2/3 is a Nicktoons with the third being an odd triplet.