Page 19 - Integrated Annual Report

• This sport is housed in what is the group’s second news channel which has a 4-hour live news telecast from Cape Town on the Openview platform. This news broadcast facility is also responsible for the news on the e.tv analogue transmission. The main 8pm news on e.tv is live from this facility in Cape Town, and is the most- watched news in English in South Africa.
Platforms – Openview/ Openview Connect/ eVOD:
• Openview, eMedia’s free-to-air satellite offering is now in nearly 2.5 million homes. The sales of Openview decoders is consistently at an average of one thousand a day. This was impacted negatively by the first part of the lockdown, but has now recovered to its previous daily averages. Although the rand/dollar exchange rate impacted on the price of the decoder, the daily sales numbers have been resilient, and are slightly better than at the old price;
• The rental deal struck with the SABC towards the end of the fiscal whereby 19 radio channels and 3 entertainment channels will be launched as also seen as uptick in box activations. This speaks directly to the fact that the content is received well and that South Africans are warming up to the offering. The group expects to be at three million boxes by March 2022;
• Openview Connect launched towards the end of the fiscal and is yet another value add for the openview customer. It will allow the openview home access to the internet without the need for fiber in a country where only
7% of homes have been connected to fiber thus far; and
• eVOD – In November 2020 the group embarked on the creation of a further platform that catapults the business firmly into the future with the imminent launch of eVOD, the group’s OTT service. All of eMedia’s library and future content will be available the OTT service. Two revenue streams will accrue to the group, advertising revenue for library content and subscription revenue for fresh content.
There are other ground endeavours in the technology space that are in focus and are receiving daily attention from the most senior persons in the group. In due course, more will be revealed on the projects on hand.
Subsidiaries:
Most of the group’s subsidiaries which include Moonlighting, Media Film Services and The Refinery Cape Town have survived the ban on international travel during the lockdown and are now all increasingly recovering to pre COVID-19 activity.
In conclusion, the eMedia Holdings business is ecstatic that it survived the worst of the lockdowns through the pandemic and is in gear to resume its pre-COVID-19 success and is hopeful that the country does not face another hard lockdown.
eMedia Holdings is separately listed on the JSE Securities Exchange, and more information on the group can be found at www.emediaholdings.co.za
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INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2021 17