Millions of viewers – who for years have been daily fed on a steady diet of South Africa’ s glam TV soaps ranging from Generations, Muvhango, Isidingo, Rhythm City and even the Afrikaans with subtitled soap 7de Laan – as well as wider choice of TV news and current affairs programming originating from South Africa, are going through severe withdrawal.
As MultiChoice’ s DStv decoder sales are suddenly skyrocketing, shops which sold the now obsolete decoders have started closing down.
Shop owners, left with thousands of worthless decoders, have been inundated with calls from TV viewers who want to know why their decoders are suddenly no longer working.
Pirate DVDs
Viewers outside of South Africa are now also resorting to buying pirated DVDs with episodes of South African TV soaps. Street vendors are selling weekly“ omnibus” DVDs with illegally copied episodes of the popular SA soaps- for just $ 1.
Meanwhile, another debate has flared up in countries such as Swaziland where shocked viewers are left wondering why Swazi TV isn’ t producing their own soapies, but allowed viewers to become hooked on Generations and Isidingo instead.
1st TV, a new private free-toair TV station planned to start broadcasting on Friday on Wiztech decoders, but failed to launch. It comes at the same time as Sentech and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation( ZBC) are talking about how South African TV programming could possibly be shown on the ZBC in the form of a new“ regional SABC channel” which could maybe offer viewers joint SABC and ZBC programming.
DStv decoders which cost $ 35 now sell for as much as $ 70 as desperate viewers cough up ever increasing prices to get access to better television and refuse to
watch what public broadcasters in their countries offer up.
“ A lot of people wanted the decoders after the switching off of SABC channels, so we then decided to increase the prices to get more cash. People are still coming,” a shop owner told the Southern Eye newspaper in Zimbabwe, where 3 million viewers watched the SABC and e. tv on free-to-air decoders before the signals were scrambled.
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