In an environment of slowing advertising revenue, the free-to-air television market - whose main source of income is advertising - is getting ready to have its pie shared among even more players as Kwese Free TV enters the fray. This week, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) announced its decision to award the media consortium - 20% held by Econet Media, 45% by Royal Bafokeng and 35% by Mosong Capital - a licence to compete with broadcasters such as the SABC and e.tv after concluding an almost two-year process.This has been met with some angst from incumbents. Kwese is the first major player to enter the market since e.tv more than 20 years ago. Zolile Ntukwana, regulatory affairs group executive for Econet Media, told Business Times that their extensive research concluded that advertising spend in SA is sufficiently large for Kwese to effectively compete in the market. However, Mark Rosin, chief operating officer of eMedia Investments - e.tv's pare...
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