eBotswana business improves after shutdown of pirate stations

Boitshepo Majube | Wednesday January 22, 2014 16:57

He said the cut-off of the channels has been a big boost for local broadcasters.

“Even-though local advertising is proving to be difficult, multi-national companies are coming forth and advertising with the station,” Gumede said, citing Tiger Brands as an example.

He said eBotswana has sold more aerials, as Batswana are buying them in large numbers. “We have since secured the rights of Generations (a popular soapie on SABC channel 1), which we think will further boost demand for our aerials,” Gumede said.

He added that they are working on plans to broadcast nationwide. “It is a slow and very expensive process that involves a lot of people,” he said.

Before the SABC channels went off air in Botswana, it was said that local (Botswana) broadcasters were failing to make profits because advertisers, especially foreign ones saw no need to do business with them. This is because the advertisers reached the Botswana market through the pirated channels. It was said the local channels did not make enough money to produce local content that is relevant to their target market.

In February 2012, eBotswana, a subsidiary of South Africa’s eTV approached the Johannesburg High Court seeking an order compelling Sentech to encrypt its SABC signals, as failure to do so had given rise to piracy through free-to-air decoders. The court found Sentech to be “wrongful, negligent and in breach” for its failure to encrypt the signal. The court ordered Sentech to take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that the signal is encrypted to prevent pirate viewing of the SABC channels.

The encryption was done but eBotswana says it would still claim damages. The station argued that despite Sentech knowing about the piracy, it turned a blind eye.

“This piracy has taken a toll on us financially and we will be pursuing the damages matter in court again. I cannot disclose how much right now but it is going to be millions,” eBotswana former manager, Dave Cole was quoted saying last year.

He said eBotswana has applied for a licence to go national and migrate from terrestrial to digital platform next month. eBotswana stated that it is engaging Multichoice, which is currently studying their proposal for a partnership.