“We received a letter yesterday (Wednesday) morning in which Telkom was informing us of the decision. We are going through the content of that letter and applying our minds,” said ICASA spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela.
He said ICASA had to “engage” with Telkom on the sale to Shenzhen Media, a Chinese media company, which owns four Chinese radio stations.
Sekgoela said that in its letter Telkom confirmed it was selling its 75% stake in Telkom Media to Shenzhen Media SA for what has been called a “nominal amount”.
ICASA would wait for details on Shenzhen Media SA's shareholding before making an announcement. “We don't want to be involved in speculation,” he said. The authority heard of Shenzhen Media for the first time on Wednesday.
The Electronic Communications Act limits foreign ownership of broadcasters to 20%.
ICASA awarded four licences for new pay-TV channels in September 2007, and Telkom Media was widely thought to be the only one with enough resources to take on the MultiChoice monopoly. But since then, Telkom Media, which kept on postponing its launch date (initially said to be last June) had done nothing visible to the public.
A Shenzhen Media SA spokesman said its shareholder structure met ICASA requirements, and it expected no significant regulatory obstacles.
The new owners are mum on plans for Telkom Media and how much they want to invest, but plan to launch in the fourth quarter.
Shenzhen Media Group runs radio stations and a pay-TV station in China, but was not thought to be a big player globally, said Africa Analytics analyst David Moore.
Nearest rival On Digital Media had been working for two years towards its launch in September while Telkom Media was starting from scratch. “It can be done, but it's very expensive,” Moore said.
Telkom Media spokesman Chris van Zyl said staff were relieved a buyer had been found.
Other analysts were suspicious about the timing as Shenzhen Media would have paid far less for its stake after Telkom's announcement that it would close Telkom Media. Telkom invested R470 million in the venture, planning to spend R7.5 billion, but has struggled since March last year to find a buyer.
A Telkom Media source said the company had a “huge amount of work” to do as it needed to sew up content deals in time for the launch. With SAPA
Source: Business Day
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