Openview HD [Finally] Crosses 100 000 Active Decoders Mark

Openview HD, South Africa's second free to air satellite platform, has finally crossed the 100 000 active decoder milestone, as of February 18th 2015.

This comes a year and a bit after the service was launched on the 15th of October in 2013 by Platco Digital, a sister company of free to air broadcaster eTV.

Though the service was launched with much fanfare and hype in 2013, uptake has been very slow due to the high costs associated with the getting platform, around R1500 at launch, something many poorer consumers who might have wanted the service just could not afford.

In contrast a standard DStv installation costs R499 and Starsat R299.

Impact of Slow Sales
This has led to problems not only for the platform and the channels it hosts, but for decoder company Ellies as well, who blamed their unimpressive financial results on the slow growth of the platform (which in turn led to a scandal about a certain executive buying certain shares, which will not be discussed here).

The disappointing growth is evident when you look at the platforms channels as well:
There has been very few new channels since launch, though there are always announcements that a new channel would come 'soon,' showing that prospective content suppliers are not willing to pay to get onto the platform.
The channels added after launch include a religious channel, a community channel, and, after listening to viewers' demands, a self-compiled music channel, though one would imagine viewers are more interested in relatively more expensive channels that have things like sports and news.
One channel, Bicars, also 'merged' with another channel, though viewers complain that they do not see Bicars programming being carried at all.
Perhaps the most curious sign (well at least to me) of the disappointment in the platform's growth is in eTV's eKasi+. The channel started with a few original programmes with the promise of more coming in the future, but since then every show that has been shown on the channel evetually gets repeated on eTV or starts its first run episodes on eTV.

Legal Troubles
The platform also faced other challenges, especially in the legal realm. At first, the very legality of the platform was challenged as it was argued that they did not have a licence to broadcast. This was reminiscent of the same struggles the now defunct  Free2View faced when they launched a similar service, though eventually both platforms somehow worked around this.

The legal troubles did not end there as the next thing that was brought up was that for any channel to broadcast from the platform, they would also need a licence. Yet again, a work around was found.

The platform was yet again challenged in court, now by the SABC, that said that the platform was carrying their channels illegally, and yet again OpenviewHD came out tops.

The Competition
Though Openview HD could be sen as being competition for all broadcasters, pay tv and free to air, the platform was in direct competition with state signal operator  Sentech's Vivid platform. While gearing up for the launch of Openview HD, Sentech decided to rebrand Vivid, which itself had been struggling, to Free Vision and promised new channels would follow in the future, which obviously is yet to launch.

Actual pay tv platforms also pose a threat to the platform as their lowest-tiered sevices, like DStv's Easyview at R29/month, is seen as having greater value, especially with the addition of news channels and sports, something Openview HD subscribers have long been calling for. Added to this is the major difference in entrance costs: R1500 for Openview HD vs the heavily subsidised R500 for DStv.

Looking to the Future
It has taken approximately a year and four months for the platform to reach its first 100 000 subscribers. It will be interesting to see what happens in future not only for natural growth, but also to see how Openview HD will fit in the increasingly competitive video entertainment market which includes not only more pay tv and online services in the future, but also with the launch of Digital tv, when it eventually comes