Star Times Might Soon Start Broadcasting P0rn0graphy!

Blue movies, p0rn0graphy, hump-flicks or whatever you know them as, if you are a smut enthusiast then Star Times has got you covered! That is befcause, after acquiring a South African broadcasting corporation: South Africa Pay TV operator…

They may begin airing some of their adult entertainment content.

Star Times plans to shore up the dwindling viewership of Top TV, which is owned by ODM, through adding to its bouquets p0rnographic channels intended to keep subscribers glued to their screens.         

South Africa’s Business Day reports that Top TV’s trump card may yet be p0rn0graphy. Quoting Alex Elliot, an insolvency director at a law firm Routledge Modises who said TopTV’s new license to air three p0rn channels might save the company.

“The business rescue process that it is entering now gave TopTV the time it needed to get the licenses for the p0rn channels — and, as we all know, sex sells,” he said. Top TV was recently licensed to broadcast three adult content channels—Playboy TV, Desire TV, and Private Spice in South Africa.

However, this has raised reasonable fears that the Chinese pay TV operator may include the Top TV p0rn channels in its bouquet offerings in other African countries in order to entice potential subscribers. StarTimes, with about nine million subscribers across China and Africa, has extensive experience in pay TV.

TopTV has been in distress since October last year and it came as no surprise when shareholders of ODM voted to accept the business rescue plan offered by Star Times. In the last two years, Top TV has had to stop airing five channels after creditors ran out of patience. Top TV owes Fox, Warner Bros and Paramount and Disney colossal debts that it has accrued over time.    

The new development has already been received with outrage in Nigeria and South Africa, with the rescue plan of ODM by Star Times being marred by massive public outcry, especially from South African religious organisations, which find Top TV’s association with p0rn0graphy repulsive.

The move comes at time heightened sensitivity on moral issues in Kenya after police arrested a Swedish National suspected with luring Kenyan girls into beastiality in Mombasa. Muslims have already decried the insensitivity to the religious and cultural groups, with the approval for the X-rated channels sparking anger of the South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council.

Star Times Nigeria has vehemently denied it plans to air the channels in the country, saying that the National Broadcasting Commission would not countenance such content. No clear communication has been released in regard to which countries Star Times will be seeking to air the three adult channels.

In May, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa gave Top TV the green light air the three p0rnographic channels. The Authority said it gave the go ahead that limits the broadcast of the adult content from 8pm to 5am, after a protracted public consultation.

There were two last minute bids that sought to block Star Times from buying into Top TV by Dynamic TV and Wananchi Group, but a by the chairman of StarTimes, Pang Xin Xing, to cancel his offer in case of further delays saw the shareholder vote in favour of Star Times.

Reports indicate that Star Times was the only company interested in conducting due diligence process and tabling an offer an offer prior to Top TV securing the right to air p0rnography.

Richard Bell’s Wananchi Group made a weak attempt to state its case for Top TV. But Ernie Lai King, a lawyer representing Top TV’s new owner Star Times, said “empty promises” and R500m would have an insignificant role in settling the ballooning debt that Top TV owes to various companies.

Source: South African Business Daily