The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has relaunched its online streaming service, formerly known as SABC+, again. The most recent makeover – marking the company’s second such relaunch before it even celebrated its second birthday – rechristens the service ‘SABC Plus‘, introducing an improved UI, more features, and a massively expanded app library.
Don’t worry. SABC Plus is still as free as it was when it took the service off Telkom’s hands in November of 2022, and thankfully still devoid of any such leading questions such as “where’s your TV licence?”. Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and daisies. Everyone’s favourite thing at the moment – ads – have wormed their way onto the platform. Signing up is also a requirement now, apparently implemented to comply with the POPI Act.
The Yassification of SABC Plus
But we’ll worry about that when we have to. For the price of (more than a few) ads every so often, customers receive a new free streaming service that incorporates live channels, an upgraded UI, personalised recommendations, video-on-demand (VOD) and even downloads for the platform’s mobile apps that’ll keep you watching even when Eskom has other ideas.
Perhaps the best thing about the new SABC Plus is the expansion of the platform’s app, now available on mobile app stores across iOS, Android and Huawei, as well as an app for LG TVs, Apple TV boxes and Google TV/Android TV boxes. The latter has been “slightly delayed” with no word on its launch just yet, however.
It’s worth noting that there are currently no limits to how many simultaneous streams can be had in a single household.
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“In addition, audiences can also enjoy Channel Africa “The Voice of the African Renaissance”, which brings programming in the languages of Chinyanja, Kiswahili, English, French and Portuguese and is broadcast to communities in the African diaspora across the world. Furthermore, the public can access Springbok Radio, Radio Bantu and the youth-based radio station 5 FM Extra as well [as] Radio 2000 Extra,” SABC said in a release.
When it comes to signing up, even those who previously held accounts on the old SABC+ are “urged to re-register with new credentials to easily access the newly revamped SABC+ platform.” Doing so will require users to submit their phone numbers, full name, birth date, gender and email address (optional) before they can set up a profile.