The contract with DStv is coming to an end this month, but all indications were that DStv would like to enter into a new agreement and keep the news channel on its platform, said eMedia Holdings.
Although eMedia's group head of corporate affairs Vasili Vass would not go into details about the negotiations, he said the media group was "of the view that the new deal will not be significantly better than our current agreement".
The 24-hour news channel, eNews Channel Africa (eNCA), is the most-watched 24-hour news channel in SA, with a share of more than 50% of viewers who watch news, according to eSat.tv. eSat.tv's sister company e.tv has been at loggerheads with DStv owner MultiChoice over the encryption of decoders to be used for digital TV.
eMedia Holdings reported a 1.7% increase in revenue from continuing operations to R2.4bn for the year to March.
The group ended the year with a R63.6m loss attributable to the equity owners of the company, compared to a profit in the previous year of R124.8m.
The eMedia loss takes into account a loss of R144.8m for discontinued operations.
Advertising revenue at e.tv came under pressure as a result of a sharp drop in market share. The company had to review its schedule to correct the falling market share. These changes have resulted in a recovery of the channel's market share.
The recovery, however, came at considerable investment by the company in local programming, which resulted in cost of sales ending the year on R1.09bn, compared to R983m the previous year, an increase of 10.9%, the company said.
The free-to-air satellite platform OpenView has grown its users to 425,000.
Vass would not comment on when the platform was expected to be profitable. He said the platform formed part of eMedia Holdings' long-term multichannel strategy.
Source: Business Day
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