How will you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
I think the key issue here is affordability. The pay-TV market in South Africa has in total approximately 3.5-million available households that are unable to afford DStv’s premium bouquet. We plan to do it differently. We plan to give the consumer the ability to choose and pay for what they want.
What preparations have you made so far?
We have been in negotiations with several major international channels and local producers in terms of finalising our content offering. We are aware that movies and sports are the key drivers of pay television and we have taken that into consideration. We have a lot of compelling content in our channel line-up and all I can say is watch this space, we are going to do some very exciting things in the market.
When will ODM launch and how many channels will it offer?
We plan to launch in the second half of 2008 and plan to offer 50 channels.
Unlike some of the players, you’ve kept a very low profile and kept quiet about your plans, until now. Why?
We still have 10 to 12 months before we launch and we would like to keep our product offerings confidential until such time as we get go to market.
How much funding and staff capacity have you committed to this project?
We plan to commit a total of R1.2-billion to this project. Initially, ODM will employ 80 members as our core staff and together with our downstream activities such as call centres and installation networks, we will create employment for approximately 1600 people.
What kind of content can we expect to see?
We plan to offer channels that cover various genres. We are aware that movies and sports are key drivers to pay-TV and we have a number of excellent movie channels which are internationally recognised brands, sports will definitely be a challenge as most of the sporting broadcasting rights are tied up by the current encumbent, but we do have some very creative ideas on producing a quality sports channel.
Icasa has asked that the winning bidders consider partnerships with some of the unsuccessful applicants as these have a lot of skills to offer. Are you considering this and if so, which companies will you be approaching?
We are keen to talk to some of the unsuccessful bidders. It is something we will be looking into but we haven’t approached anyone as yet.