Cellphone Channel Acquires Old SABC Shows Broadcast Rights
MobileTV, which has acquired a new pay-TV licence, has signed a deal with the South African Broadcasting Corporation for the broadcasting rights to some of its library's popular titles. South Africans will now be able to watch old SABC series such as Yizo Yizo and soapies on their cellphones.
It is not clear at this stage whether the soapies will be aired as current episodes or reruns of the old ones.
"The SABC's impressive catalogue has been creatively re-purposed, repackaged and realigned on a single channel, enhanced by the familiarity and popularity of the content on offer," says Mothobi Mutloatse, the chairperson of MobileTV.
They say in the digital industry you do not create to earn now but set a pace for the future market. In that sense, it would make sense for MobileTV to offer this service now but in practical terms, the idea seems a little too ahead of our country's digital footprints.
With the exorbitant cellphone data costs and low batter life of smartphones, it would be ill thought out for anybody to wanna waste their data or battery watching old content.
As a consumer I already have frustrations dealing with phones not being able to sustain a longer battery life with all these APPs. I can not imagine spending more than 10 minutes watching an old episode of Yizo Yizo?
However, MobileTV could be pioneering a new platform for content, and in time they may be able to attract interest from production companies who may want to serve the mobile market with content.
Personally, I believe that until we can sortout the broadband issues in this country, and make internet access more accessible to the majority of our people, such ventures are just not for our time, maybe the future generation will benefit from these innovations we laying the foundation for.
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