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Cape Town – OpenView HD will reach its 200 000th installation and activation within days since the free-to-air satellite TV service launched in South Africa in October 2013.
OpenView HD is operated by Platco Digital with its head office in Johannesburg and is backed by e.tv's parent company Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI).
In 2014 Ellies, the JSE-listed electronics distributor said that OpenView HD "has been slow to take off" and that there's been a poor uptake of the service but OpenView HD.
e.tv started OpenView HD as a counter and interim measure to due to government's long-delayed switch-on of commercial digital terrestrial television (DTT) in South Africa and things are now looking better for OpenView HD.
OpenView HD tells Channel24 that a target of 170 000 box sales was set for this financial year and OpenView HD has already sold 100 000 boxes. OpenView HD sold an average of 3 500 boxes per month last year and is now averaging sales of 26 000 boxes per month.
"The growth of OpenView HD is better than expected," says Maxwell Nonge, the managing director of Platco Digital.
"In its 1st year OpenView HD was accepted into 50 000 households. To date there has been a 300% increase in the uptake which will get OpenView HD to 200 000 active decoders."
Nonge says "viewers can look forward to an even more enhanced offering from the platform, as new channels will be added to the bouquet soon".
"Content that will be added is guided by focused consumer research to ensure that the channels are in line with the target audience's viewing patters."
OpenView HD has 19 entertainment channels, including the SABC's SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3, and carries 5 radio stations.
OpenView HD decoders retails for R399 which excludes the dish and installation. It uses the same dish alignment as MultiChoice's DStv which means that OpenView HD viewers don't need to buy a second satellite dish and only the decoder.
