Cell C recently launched their “anti-red” campaign in response to Vodacom’s new Red campaign, warning users to “Stay out of the Red”, but the company is not stopping at text ads.

Cell C has now taken it’s “anti-red” campaign to television. The television commercial features Cell C’s customer experience officer, Trevor Noah, and pokes further fun at Vodacom’s new Red rebranding.

In the advertisement Noah walks around a blue car being resprayed to red and ask the question, “Recently a 17 year old cell network changed their colors.  Nice.  But what is actually under the hood.”

Noah then walks towards a new black Ferrari uttering the follow phrase: “The engine that drives Cell C is its leading and completely new HSPA+ 900 MHz network – voted best in the country.  Cause it takes more than a lick of paint to be SA’s number 1 network …”

Cell C is not the only company trying to gain exposure from Vodacom’s new Red re-branding campaign, ISP Afrihost, famous for setting the new standard for per GB prices has also launched a red campaign where they are offering customers 17GB of unshaped bandwidth for just over R200.

[UPDATE]
Cell C has now aired another television ad aimed at Vodacom’s Red campaign.

Although DSTV has no plans to offer any local 3-D content anytime soon, Nu Metro cinemas are bringing the 3-D World Cup experience to local viewers.

Nu Metro cinemas in association with SuperSport and DSTV have partnered to bring South African viewers live footage of certain World Cup matches on the big screen.

With the World Cup in full swing, Sony has been promoting their new range of 3-D television aggressively here in South Africa but to the locals dismay there is no use for it yet in South Africa as only overseas sport networks like ESPN is offering the World Cup games in 3-D.

Nu Metro will over live screenings of the World Cup in 3-D at the following selected cinemas, Emperors Palace, Montecasino, Clearwater Mall, The Glen, Bedford Centre, Hyde Park, Menlyn Park, The Pavilion, Galleria, V&A Waterfront, Canal Walk, Riverside Mall, Loch Logan and Walmer Park.

If you are interested in viewing a live World Cup match in 3-D the following games will be shown:

Tickets go on sale from Wednesday 16 June 2010, so make sure you are one of the first to take advantage of this first time experience here in South Africa.

MultiChoice has again hit back to stay ahead in the Pay-TV game by announcing it latest HD-PVR decoder today just ahead of the World Cup that will be broadcasted in HD.

The new HD-PVR decoder, called the HD-PVR 2P, will allow customers to view one channel and record another at the same time. It also boasts the same 500 GB HDD the previous models has, ensuring for up to 50 hours of HD recording.

The HD-PVR 2P will for now not support Video On Demand, or the ability to block record series. These capabilities will however be added later this year via a over the air software upgrade.

Good news for those that has been wanting to get their hands on DSTV’s HD offerings but couldn’t due to the high price of the decoders, the HD-PVR 2P will retail for R1999, a thousand rand cheaper than the other models currently on the market.

This is a good move by MultiChoice but I still think we need a more lower-end HD decoder on the market, specially for those that live in complex apartments and only have the availability of one DSTV feed to them. Still I welcome this HD decoder and it’s evident that the competition from TopTV is causing DSTV to drop prices.

Google yesterday at their I/O conference announced with many other new products and technologies, Google TV.

Google TV is Google’s aim to bring web to the TV, but will they succeed? Currently there are numerous other similar products available but it has not really catched on with the consumers.

Google TV is expected to go on sale in the fall of this year, however pricing hasn’t been announced.

Google has partnered with Sony, Intel and Logitech to provide the company with Google TV devices. Sony will manufacture television sets with Google TV capabilities running Intel chips, while Logitech will provide a set top box device with a keyboard and mouse.

The Google TV software will based on the Android Mobile Operating System with Google Chrome for browsing the web.

Google are actually genius, I mean they have this big advertising platform for the web, and with way more TV viewers than web users expanding this advertising platform to TV could mean big revenue increase for them.

I for one would enjoy a great web browsing experience on my TV.

With TopTV about to launch on 1 May 2010 starting from R99 per month, DSTV has responded by introducing DSTV Lite.

Multichoice has announced that it will provide customers with more value and choice by introducing a brand new bouquet called DSTV Lite. There will now be six bouquets available on the DSTV network ranging from R20 per month to the premium package of R529 per month.

DSTV will also be adding additional channels to the lower end bouquets. DStv Select 1 will get 8 additional video channels, to have a total of 34 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Select 2 will get 6 additional video channels, to have a total of 32 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Compact will get 4 additional video channels, to have a total of 44 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels.

The various options subscribers will now have on DSTV include the following:

• DStv EasyView R20
• DStv Lite R99
• DStv Select 1 R148
• DStv Select 2 R148
• DStv Compact R232
• DStv Premium R529

For a comprehensive channel guide to the various packages check out the DSTV website.

Its clear that Multichoice is feeling the pressure from soon to be launched TopTV, who knows maybe we will soon have affordable premium pay TV in South Africa.

With the arrival of TopTV on 1 May 2010 every South African will now be able to afford premium quality Pay TV.

From as little as R99 per month subscribers will now have access to over 2o channels consisting of local and international programming. TopTV will initially offer four different Pay TV packages namely Variety, Kids and Music, Entertainment and Knowledge and Ultimate Movies.

“The majority of South Africans who can afford to pay between R99 and R249 a month, will have access to world class television entertainment across all genres including News & Knowledge, Movies, Family and Sport, Kids, Music and Cultural programming.” says Vino Govender, CEO of On Digital Media (ODM). Govender adds, “Some of the highlights of these channels include the Top History channel which will bring the history of South Africa to the fore as never before, BBC News, Eurosport News, 6 dedicated 24 hour movie channels, as well as services for the Portuguese and French communities in South Africa.”

TopTV has established partnerships with leading studios around the world, including CBS, Fox, Warner, Discovery and Disney.

TopTV subscribers can look forward to channels such as Zee Cinema, Discovery Travel & Living, Fox Entertainment, Fine Living Network, Current TV, BET, MGM, Showtime, Discovery Science, Silver, Baby TV, Setanta Africa, France24, BBC World, Hi Nolly, Kidsco, Jim Jam, Baby TV, Fuel TV, and Fox FX just to name a few.

TopTV’s set-top boxes and dishes will be available at a introductory price of only R499. The introductory price includes a TopTV decoder (STB), Installation, Smart Card, Power Supply, Male / Female RF Cable, RCA Cable, Remote Control Unit, Batteries and instruction manual. Set-top boxes and dishes will be available through Makro, Pep, Dion, Game, selected Jumbo Cash & Carry stores, CCW, Brown’s, Weirs and House & Home stores.

South Africa’s second Pay TV operator TopTV is set to launch on the 1st of May by ODM (On Digital Media)

TopTV will be the first competition DSTV faces which had the monopoly for Pay TV in South Africa for the past decade. The question remains will TopTV pose a threat to DSTV?

Top TV is set to launch with a range of seven channel bouquets ranging from R99 to R249. The bouquets will consist out of channels made up from several categories namely Variety, Kids & Music, Entertainment & Knowledge and Movies.

The R99 package will only include channels from the Variety category where as on the R159 package users will get the Variety channels and have the choice of either Kids & Music or Entertainment & Knowledge channels. The R189 package from TopTV includes Varienty channels, Kids & Music channels as well as Entertainment & Knowledge channels. For R220 users will get the same benefits of the R159 package with Movie channels added, and for R249 users will get all the channels available on TopTV.

People interested in TopTV can either their existing DSTV dish and turn it or can obtain a full installation voucher for R699 which includes a decoder, dish and installation. There are rumors floating around that TopTV is set to have a launch price of R499 for the whole package.

It would be interesting to see how many people will make the move to TopTV. I foresee the die hard sport fanatics will stay with DSTV and people more interested in entertainment and movies will probably make the move over to TopTV as their pricing is much more attractive.

What is your opinion? Is it worth moving over to TopTV or are you staying with DSTV? Also if you have never been a DSTV subscriber are you considering taking up one of the TopTV packages?

For long DSTV has been the only Pay TV operator in South Africa and been milking their customers for every cent they have, but this is about to change very soon with the launch of On Digital Media (ODM).

On Digital Media has revealed in an exclusive interview with Fin24 their details about the service they plan to launch in May 2010. ODM’s Pay TV channels bouquets pricing will range from R99 to R249 per month.

The content ODM will be providing will range from local to international with the likes of Fox Entertainment and MGM.

Bad news for the rugby and cricket lovers is that they will have to stick with DSTV for now as ODM will not provide rugby, cricket or PSL football at launch, but would gain rights to niche sporting content such as martial arts. Good news is that ODM would also pursue rights for other sports as the contracts with Multichoice expire and become available.

CEO of ODM Vino Govender, also revealed the following:

• ODM will provide Fox Entertainment, MGM and other international channels for the first time in SA.
• Packages will begin at R99 for a basic package with 30 channels and range up to R249 for a premium package with a full range of channels grouped by genre.
• ODM is in discussions with Multichoice to explore the possibility of acquiring content from DStv.
• Customers will be able to use existing DStv satellite dishes with the ODM service, but the dish will have to be repositioned.
• ODM recommends a 75cm dish and the ODM service has been designed to be more stable in bad weather than DStv.
• ODM’s satellite footprint runs from northern Nigeria to Cape Town.
• ODM decoders are being provided by UEC, a division of the Altech Group.
• ODM plans to launch a PVR decoder within 12 months from launch.
• The electronic programme guide (EPG) for ODM has been designed by the NDS Group, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and is more sophisticated than what is used by Multichoice, according to Govender.

For more in depth details visit Fin24

In July some of you may remember that I wrote about the release of the brand new DSTV HD PVR that was due for release this month. Sad news is that we will still have to wait a little bit longer for the release of the new DSTV HD PVR.

Multichoice has revealed that they are still busy testing the new UEC HD PVR but it is in the final stages of testing and would be released to the public very soon, but no date has been given yet.

Multichoice announced the release of the new UEC DSTV HD PVR in July this year, the UEC decoder is set to compete with the current PACE HD PVR. Multichoice also announced that they will be releasing a lower end HD decoder soon that will give users the HD experience without having PVR functionality. The lower end HD decoder will come in at a lower price than the current PVR models, no date has yet been set for the release of the lower end HD decoder.

The new UEC HD PVR wil be here in September, with a cheaper low end HD PVR decoder model to follow in next year.

MultiChoice launched its first HD PVR decoder in August last year, in time to view the Beijing Olympics in high definition. During this launch many consumers rushed to get the new HD PVR to put they high definition TVs to better use.

The PACE HD PVR was hover plagued with allot of software bugs, which Multichoice said has for the most been resolved. According to MultiChoice CEO Nolo Letele the latest HD PVR software release, which was made available to DSTV subscribers in May, means that the decoder is now very stable and reliable.  MultiChoice CTO Gerdus van Eeden added that there is another HD PVR software update on its way, which will further improve stability and fix a few smaller bugs.

So far Multichoice has only been able to sign up 41000 HD subscribers, allot les then the 290 000 SD PVR subscribers. Acording to Multichoice this is about to change as they wil be launching a agressive Dstv HD PVR campaign soon, with 3 additional HD channels within the next 9 months time.

Good news to those of us waiting for a new HD PVR is that there is two new HD PVR models on their way with the first being released in September this year. The first wil be a UAC HD PVR which will compete directly against the current PACE HD PVR, aswell as a lower end UAC model which will be more afordable than both the PACE and UAC HD PVR models.

The UAC HD PVR will ba a quad tuner decoder and you should see it in shops by September this year. This model is expected to cost the same as the current PACE HD PVR,

The lower end model will only contain a dual tuner and a smaller HDD, which should reduce the cost significantly. Although Multichoice has released any datails about availability and pricing, it is expected to retail for about R2000.

Lets just hope that the new models doesn’t also take almost a year to run stable.