SABC board debacle continues

According to The Times, the SABC is also trying to muscle in on pay TV revenue, having requested in May 2007 that ICASA “urgently implement both “must-carry” and “must-pay” provisions”: successful pay TV applicants should not only be forced to carry SABC channels; they must pay for it, too.

Meanwhile, Business Report writes that the reason Sentech withdrew from the pay TV licence race at the last minute last week is because “it did not have a clear strategy on how it would source the funds needed to run the service”.

Web first

Last week Friday, 14 September 2007, the Mail & Guardian Online went web first with a dramatic secret videotape revealing a consultation between Saleem Ebrahim, the lawyer of the three main detractors of suspended Ekurhuleni metro police boss Robert McBride, and an unknown client at Ebrahim's office in Fordsburg, Johannesburg. The video content, hosted through the third-party services of local video and photo sharing site Zoopy.com, was announced on Friday by posts on the blogs of Vincent Maher, strategist at the Mail & Guardian Online, and Zoopy.

For more:

Sunday Times: ANC'S bullies ram through SABC Board
• The Times: SABC wants in on pay-TV earnings

• Business Report: Sentech pulled out of pay TV race to save face

• Mail & Guardian Online: Revealed: Secret McBride tapes

• Blog: Vincent Maher's Media in Transition: McBride secret tapes made for the web

• Blog: Zoopy.com: Explosive McBride video revealed by M&G Online and McBride video racks up record views : 7,700 and counting