COINING IT

Who’s making money from load-shedding

● Did load-shedding cause you to miss your favourite TV show this week? If it did, your broadcaster may have you covered.

DStv, SABC and OpenView have all made plans to help viewers catch up on TV time lost to the power crisis.

SABC group executive for corporate affairs and marketing Gugu Ntuli said: “We recently launched a streaming platform, SABC Plus, which presents an opportunity for our audiences to catch their favourite shows anywhere, any time. SABC Plus allows audiences to catch up, rewind and download content. In addition, the SABC has a repeat strategy across its video entertainment network which enables audiences to catch up on some of the missed programmes. They can watch the select programmes at rebroadcast scheduled times, on the same channel or a sister channel on the SABC TV network.”

MultiChoice this week launched two new channels called DStv Switch’d On to help viewers catch up on missed entertainment. The channels will allow viewers to watch prime-time TV if they missed it due to the blackouts. Shows include The River, DiepCity, Gqeberha: The Empire, Gomora and Arendsvlei, MultiChoice said in a statement.

“This intervention will give viewers up to five times the opportunity to watch their favourite prime-time shows when the lights come back on, ensuring that DStv customers have multiple opportunities to watch their shows,” it said this week.

The first to launch its load-shedding catch-up plans was OpenView, which announced its new channel last Friday. By Monday it was live. “Power-Up! (Channel 114 on OpenView) is the new pop-up channel that ensures viewers never miss a show again — no matter how your load-shedding schedule changes,” the broadcaster said.

Bennum van Jaarsveld, spokesperson for OpenView, said Power-Up will feature repeats of all e.tv hit prime-time shows, including Durban Gen, House of Zwide, Scandal! and Imbewu from Monday to Friday, running in two-hour loops. The channel will be on from 6am until midnight every day. The Black Door will repeat on weekends from 11pm.

Van Jaarsveld said Afrikaans telenovela fans are also covered. “Power-Up! will showcase the omnibus repeats of all the Afrikaans dramas on weekends. #DisComplicated, Daai Crazy Somer, Die Vertroueling and more will be available if you missed it during the week due to load-shedding.”