Free TV streaming platform launched in South Africa

TV2GO, a free streaming TV platform with “over 100 channels”, has officially launched in South Africa.

The TV2GO platform – available at www.tv2go.co.za – was first punted for South Africans by Infinivy SA and Cast-TV in October.

TechCentral has now reported that the platform is officially live in the country, and is backed by Infinivy SA and Cast-TV. Jomo Sono was listed as the current president of Infinivy SA.

“TV2GO offers an extraordinary user experience to watch their favourite programs anywhere, anytime, and on any device,” stated the release.”

“TV2GO content lineup features movies, documentary, fashion, martial arts, gaming and kids channels, which can be watched on the SPI network of channels. It also offers live streaming news channels from Euronews and Africanews as well as numerous independent thematic channels and live streaming of local radio stations.”

Duplination, Nov. 9, 2018

Free streaming service launched in South Africa

A new video streaming service has been launched in South Africa. Named TV2GO, the service is free and does not require users to subscribe.

Unlike its competition iSouth Africa, namely Netflix and Showmax, all a viewer needs to access TV2Go's 100 plus channels is an Internet connection, there is no need to sign-up, register or pay a subscription fee.

“Our goal is to bring free TV to the people," said Jomo Sono, President of Infinivy South Africa (the company behind TV2GO)".

How the video streaming service works

Firstly, the video streaming service features a variety of content like movies, documentaries, fashion shows, martial arts, gaming and kids channels. Added to that there is also live streaming news channels such as Euronews and Africanews as well as numerous independent thematic channels and live streaming of local radio stations.

The service free to view and all users have to do currently is visit the TV2GO website and select the channels they want to watch. You still have to pay for your data (Internet connection) costs the same way you would when streaming videos on YouTube or Vimeo. How TV2GO makes money is through advertising, viewers will be subjected to a mximum of 8 advertisements during every thre hour viewing period.

Furthermore, the company is involved in exploratory talks with South African telecommunications company, Vodacom, to explore ways it can offer the content through the Vodacom app. This will also include specific vouchers for TV2GO viewing on the Vodacom network, similar to what MTN is doing with Jay-Z's music streaming service, TIDAL, across Afrika.

Business model

As mentioned, the business model is nothing new but the age old ad-supported business model of many Internet media companies. Infinivy cites the IAB/PWC Report of 2017 which states that digital ad spending in South Africa grew by 36% over the last 12 months to R3,4 Billion with mobile driving this growth, posting a 60% year-on-year increase in online ad spending, and a 22% increase in search spending, as one of the main reasons they are launching the service.

"Infinivy believes in embracing the Free Advertising Generated Income business model for its maximum monetization and scalability capacity, while offering Freemium TV, an unnumbered quality of free diverse linear and non-linear channels to the users. Combined with its aggressive Revenue Sharing plan with its telcos partners, this model guarantees a Win-Win formula all parties."

Will it succeed?

"That's a difficult question to answer. Ultimately an ad-supported media business survives mainly on its ability to generate content that attracts enough people to receive enough advertising revenue to cover costs and make profit to grow".

iAfrican, Nov. 9th, 2018

Tomorrow’s TV arrives today with launch of TV2GO

Touted as a free platform for everyone, TV2GO is a new amalgamation platform that sources content from various places, including linear channels, music channels, and several internet video sharing sites, including YouTube and Vimeo.

The channels cover a vast array of categories including news, finance, religion, sport, children, music, and more. The content is refreshed every two months and much of it has been adapted to the local market, including some Zulu language programming.

“The content is unique for this platform. We adapt the content and the linear channels to the people in the market,” comments Yaron Chen, CEO of Infinivy.

As long as the user has an internet connection and data to stream, they can watch TV2GO content on their laptop, smart television, tablet or mobile device, anytime, anywhere.

Soccer legend, Jomo Sono, president of Infinivy, was instrumental in bringing the platform to South Africa. He explains how TV2GO will change the local content market and why people will tune in to watch:

No subscriptions, only data costs

The platform is free in the sense that users don’t pay any subscription fees, but they still have to pay for data costs. 

Vodacom has partnered with TV2GO and is exploring ways to bring the content to its customers in a more seamless way. These include affordable vouchers for viewing, and embedding the platform in the Vodacom app.

“The trick is to listen to the people and ask the question of what do they want to see. What is the channel that they would watch? It’s about opening up the communication with the people and asking them what they want to see and then putting it on the platform,” explains Sindy Snow, digital advertising project manager at Vodacom.

People can answer this question and give content recommendations on TV2GO’s Facebook page.

For the company and its partners, the platform will make money through pre-roll adverts, with four to eight slots planned per three hour viewing window. The team is taking aim at any brand that is a potential advertiser that has money.

No competitors

Chen believes there are no direct competitors to TV2GO  www.tv2go.co.za as “there’s no free television in the South African market” and because “it’s a new concept all over the world”. But he sees pay-TV as an indirect competitor. He also admits that Netflix and Amazon have a huge library of videos and movies, and he sees them as complementary to TV2GO, rather than competitors, because the offerings are different.

How TV2GO arrived in South Africa

The journey began to years ago when Sono visited Israel on business. He saw TV2GO on the television, in the office he was visiting and upon finding out more information about it, believed it would be a perfect fit for South African audiences.

The technology behind the platform was developed five years ago by Israeli firm Cast-TV. Since then it has brought it to several markets outside of Israel, including Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, and now South Africa.

Plans are in place in the near future to introduce the platform to three other African markets, including Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Officially launched one month ago, TV2GO already has 30 000 users in South Africa.

The Media Online, Nov. 9th, 2018

Free-To-Air TV Service ‘TV2GO’ Takes Off in South Africa, Set to Challenge Satellite TV Viewing

There has been plenty of discussions about the future of TV since the start of the year. As video streaming continues to stand on more solid ground, traditional TV and satellite providers are losing ground fast.

Now a new threat has emerged to increase that pressure even further. South African company, infinivy SA has just launched TV2GO,  a free-to-air TV platform. The platform is completely web based, uses no decoder and has no app presently. The platform is accessible via mobile phone browsers, tablets, and even internet-enabled TV devices. 

Currently, the completely web-based TV platform has over 100 linear and on-demand channels for viewing. Its channels range from general entertainment, sports and religion.

The platform currently has content for the South African market only. Nonetheless, Infinity SA plans to increase its offerings and expand the service to other African countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. These three countries represent not just some of Africa’s largest economies, but they also possess the continent’s highest populations.

Interestingly, unlike other internet TV platforms, TV2GO doesn’t use a subscription model for revenue generation. Instead, it plans to make money from advertising. It explains that for every three hours of viewing, users may see up to eight adverts. This seems like a workable plan, considering income levels across African countries.

Jomo Sono’s Infinivy SA owns 26% of TV2GO with Israeli company Cast-TV owning 75%.Included on the platform's channels bouquet is the Jomo Cosmos soccer channel, owned by Sono.