Telkom has partnered with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to launch a new online streaming service named TelkomONE.
The five-year partnership is a first-of-its-kind digital carriage agreement for the SABC and will include TV programmes radio platforms on a single online platform.
TelkomONE will stream SABC television channels 1, 2, Sport, and Education as well as all 19 SABC radio stations. The SABC will provide its content to Telkom on a non-exclusive basis.
In exchange, the SABC will receive a carriage licence fee as well as share in the advertising revenue generated on the TelkomONE platform.
“We are excited about the opportunity to provide South Africans with free access to watch their favourite SABC content, online, when and wherever they want,” said Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko.
“TelkomONE will make it possible for subscribers to pause, go back into the programme guide (time-shift) and instantly watch a scheduled TV show they may have missed. Telkom is making digital TV functionality available to all.”
Customers can browse the catalogue and register for free to access a limited content catalogue that has a mixture of news, inspiration, and entertainment channels or subscribe to one of the AMP subscription packages that include music, short films, TV series, and the free content by default upon registration.
Users can pay via prepaid airtime, voucher, credit card, wallet and Add to Bill for contract customers. Telkom added that the streaming service will offer other content in addition to the SABC channels – including comedy and lifestyle shows, and music.
“Highlights to look forward to include local short films and new productions such as Thesha – a visual trip into modern-day South African youth culture, experienced through the lives of two teenage friends and Hashtag – a fun, energetic, lighthearted family-friendly talk show hosted by Sophie Lichaba, Mantsoe Tsatsi, Jarred Doyle, and Francois Louw,” Telkom said.
“The partnership is significant in ensuring that our content, in all its formats, reaches consumers everywhere at any time,” SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe said.
“The SABC has a wealth of content – both acquired and produced by local talent – that we broadcast on our free-to-air channels.
“Through the new streaming channel, we will further promote universal access to popular SABC content for audiences and customers, in an affordable manner and with ease of access on mobile.
Mxakwe said this partnership is part of the SABC’s overall strategy of becoming a “competitive multichannel and multiplatform public content provider.
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Source: mybroadband
