VoD (Video On Demand)

The Birth of ShowMax Deluxe

I don’t think anyone can say with confidence that they have seen this coming. Perhaps it was there at the back of our collective minds; I am talking to those of us who care about television. That there is no way, mhum let me correct my self here before I err – that there was no way that DStv would compete with Naspers Showmax. After all the two can easily trace their ancestry to a common ancestor, Naspers. On 13 June 2016 the two platforms came out in public to announce their union∇

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The Node Nadir

{ON} 22 July, Altech (Allied Technologies Limited) announced that the NODE, its Video Streaming decoder, has unfortunately failed to take off with the South African consumers in the Pay Television sector and that it was planning to sell it. Here is a machine, which besides its Video On Demand (VoD) function, offered to smarten up your home with security system through motion detection. It sought to enable you to surf the internet through its embedded 3G or use it as a wifi hotspot around your house as well as a host of cool capabilities such as the ability to buy air time, pre-paid electricity as well as pay your Telkom and Eskom bills all from the comfort of your home. After nodding several times as I list these features you might be compelled to raise your index finger and enquire about the machine’s data gobbling appetite. Well the NODE uses satellite technology to push video content into its 1 Terabyte hard drive without data costs the same way DStv’s catch up Service functions. However the traditional use of internet comes with data costs which is fair enough; we’re so used to spending for data connection anyway ⌈¶⌋

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