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Media Future: DStv Explora

The new DStv Explora decoder is about to deliver on the unmet promise of previous versions, but leaves the have-nots even further behind, writes Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee).

The dithering of successive administrations at the Department of Communications has deferred the digital dreams of South Africa’s TV viewing public. The migration to digital terrestrial TV (DTTV), originally set for 2011, still has no due date. The Department has yet to issue tenders for set-top boxes needed by 5-million households to convert digital signals into an analogue feed for their old TV sets.

It was something of an irony, then, that a major announcement was made last week of a new set-top box. Sadly for the 5-million, the box had nothing to do with DTTV. For them, the dream remains deferred.

Inflation Watch figures show the march of DStv in ad wars

by Gill Moodie (@GrubstreetSA) The big story of the recently released Inflation Watch figures from Ibis Media Data Services for 2012 is the march of Naspers’ pay-TV giant DStv.

The media inflation figures – that measure the cost of reaching consumers by buying adverts in the media – go out to Ibis’ subscribers, which are mostly in the advertising and marketing industries. The data includes media delivery (performance in terms of print circulation, radio listenership and TV viewership) and value (the “Media Inflation Watch” or “MIW”, that is, performance versus the ad rates).

The recent figures compare those of 2012 to that of the previous year, 2011.

Bearing in mind that new weighting measures were introduced to RAMS and TAMS (that measure radio and television audiences) in the third quarter of 2011 so that the only real trend measure for these sectors is the Rate Index rather than the performance-linked MIW, Ibis said that television ad rates were up by 1.82% .

DStv acknowledges promo similarities with iconic Apple ad

“Here’s to the crazy ones… who had the balls to copy one of the greatest commercials ever made.” The Bizcommunity.com peanut gallery was un-amused when Ornico recently picked a DStv promo titled ‘The Dreamers’ as its ‘Ad of the Week’ on its ad showcase on Biz. The promo in question reminds one strongly of a rather iconic ad made by Apple for its successful ‘Think Different’ campaign in the late 1990s. Read the full story here.

Shame on SAPA for giving bigot national, uncritical exposure

One Taryn Hodgson of The Christian Action Network (CAN) has been gaining considerable exposure in the mainstream media thanks to SAPA. Hodgson launched an attack on DSTv researching the possibility of offering a pornographic pay-TV channel to South Africans. SAPA decided to cast her as a vocal opponent of any such move and as an advocate for women’s rights.

The MK Bruce Lee preview

ssue 3 of MK Buce Lee will be in-store end of May 09. MK Bruce Lee is a quarterly publication focussing on the local music scene and is sponsored by music channel MK. Agency The President recently scooped a silver CLIO statue at the 50th Annual CLIO Awards. The magazine won the award in the category for Editorial Design. MarkLives provides a preview of the next issue:

Egyptian mummies in the Cairo Museum: 24. Egyptian mummies in the British Museum: 300.

George Orwell once observed that: “History is written by the winners.” This thought proves only too true when looking at little known facts of history, when compared to more well-known facts, especially in the realms of conflict, conquest and civilization. Every story has two sides.