CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A war over South Africa's new 24-hour hardcore porn channel is brewing.
Porn Satellite TV (PSat) reportedly said its new adult service would start broadcasting in January from the country’s popular African Satellite Installation’s (ASI) TopTV Astra 4 satellite, and would feature "one channel featuring only guy-on-girl, girl-on-girl and monstrous group orgies, all with the heterosexual viewer in mind.”
The proposed shows would cost viewers about $12 a month.
But MyBroadband reported that TopTV flat out denies the association with PSat and has accused (ASI) and PSat for “misusing and misrepresenting the TopTV brand in the marketplace” and will be filing lawsuits to stop the move.
TopTV also claimed that it’s not aware that PSat has applied for, or been issued with, the necessary license to broadcast in South Africa and by using its dish would be unlawfully using a portion of the downlink spectrum that has solely been authorized for use by TopTV.
According to an earlier iAfrica report, PSat’s programming comes out of France and is broadcast outside of South Africa’s jurisdiction.
John Solomon of ASI told the Rapport news agency that his company would hire out the special decoders and smartcards needed to view the channel.
"PSat is totally independent of other satellite channels and you will need a special decoder, smartcard and a satellite dish to view the channel," Solomon said.
"All you have to do is unplug your TopTV decoder and replace it with the PSat decoder." Other free channels would also be available to viewers with the decoder.
However, TopTV said that the move is illegal and ASI is asking subscribers to break the law by using TopTV’s infrastructure without the necessary authorization.
According to the MyBroadband report, TopTV has also submitted an application with regulators to broadcast its own porn on three additional channels with PIN code age verification.
ASI reportedly ordered 5000 decoders ahead of the channel's South African launch.