Telkom and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have announced a partnership to launch a new streaming channel, TelkomONE. The mobile operator channel will house the public broadcaster’s free-to-air radio and TV channels.
The five-year partnership, a first-of-its kind digital carriage agreement for the SABC, will showcase South Africa’s most-watched TV programmes and most listened to radio platforms, on one online platform. TelkomONE will stream live SABC’s television channels 1, 2, Sport and Education as well as all 19 SABC radio stations.
The SABC will provide its content to Telkom on a non-exclusive basis. In exchange, the SABC will receive a carriage licence fee as well as share in the advertising revenue generated on the TelkomONE platform, the partners said in a press release.
“We are excited about the opportunity to provide South Africans with free access to watch their favourite SABC content, online, when and wherever they want,” said Sipho Maseko, Telkom’s group CEO. “TelkomONE will make it possible for subscribers to pause, go back into the programme guide (time-shift) and instantly watch a scheduled TV show they may have missed. Telkom is making digital TV functionality available to all.”
Madoda Mxakwe, the SABC’s group CEO said Telkom was a natural partner for the public broadcaster. “The partnership is significant in ensuring that our content, in all its formats, reaches consumers everywhere at anytime. The SABC has a wealth of content – both acquired and produced by local talent – that we broadcast on our free-to-air channels,” he said.
“Through the new streaming channel, we will further promote universal access to popular SABC content for audiences and customers, in an affordable manner and with ease of access on mobile. We will also create added opportunities for our talented local producers to showcase more of their work on a platform on which content can live longer than on traditional media platforms. The TelkomOne partnership is part of the SABC’s overall strategy of becoming a competitive multichannel and multiplatform public content provider.”
TelkomONE will include a plethora of other content over and above the SABC channels, such as comedy, lifestyle content and music for youth and others on-the-go. Highlights to look forward to include local short films and new productions such as Thesha – a visual trip into modern-day South African youth culture, experienced through the lives of two teenage friends and Hashtag – a fun, energetic, lighthearted family-friendly talk show hosted by Sophie Lichaba, Mantsoe Tsatsi, Jarred Doyle and Francois Louw.
Read more: Do not adjust your set. Head of SABC TV Merlin Naicker on plans for the broadcaster’s TV stations
Customers can browse the catalogue and register for free to access to on-the-house content that has a mixture of news, inspiration and entertainment channels (SABC audio and TV channels, Africa News, France 24, Hope Channel, SBN etc.) or subscribe to any of our AMP subscription packages that include music, short films, TV series plus the free content by default upon registration. (Some of the content includes Viva Nation TV, Stingray etc.)
The app can be downloaded on your favourite Android or IOS app store and enjoy or on your desktop www.telkomone.tv.
