MTN aiming to launch pay-TV by the end of the decade

MTN aiming to launch pay-TV by the end of the decade

South African cellular operator MTN is said to be talking with Naspers’ MultiChoice pay-TV business to launch television on mobile service by the end of the decade.

Buckley McGrath, head of MTN South Africa’s corporate business unit said in a statement on their plans for the future: “We think it is a viable commercial offering and we are looking at an offering with existing players. It is a long-term thing, maybe in 2008, definitely before 2010.”

They are aiming to start this service before the soccer World Cup scheduled to take place in the country.

McGrath added that they have been contacted by several interested parties interested in offering their own mobile phone services by piggybacking on the MTN network.