eMedia Holdings’ free-to-air satellite television service, Openview, had a particularly good financial year. The platform’s ad revenue increased by almost 74% from R269.9 million in 2021 to R468.1 million in 2022. With content costs for the 2022 financial year totalling R446.3 million, the increase means the platform is now profitable.
What that means for viewers is a wider range of channels and an upgraded decoder.
Openview is all grown up, finally turns a profit
The platform is planning to launch “a few” new channels, perhaps as a way to celebrate. That’s besides the channels that have already launched this year. Those would be eXposed, ePlesier, and The Home Channel+. There’s no word yet on what the new channels are or when users can expect them, however.
New channels aren’t the only change coming to the platform. Openview is also planning to launch an upgraded decoder. By the sounds of things, this one will have internal memory and WiFi capabilities. That is presumably so eMedia can give its existing Openview users access to the company’s eVOD streaming service that launched last year.
The service is eMedia’s attempt to join the growing trend of video streaming platforms. eVOD offers an ad-supported tier, a subscription-based tier, and a pay-per-view-like option for movies and series. The platform is also developing its own original content, which can be accessed via a web browser or mobile apps for Android and iOS.
As for the new channels, there isn’t a readily available timeline for when users might see them or the new, slightly smarter decoder from Openview.
Source TechCentral