Subscription channel TopTV is determined to launch its three 24-hour porn channels in spite of court action to stop it.

Spokesman Melinda Connor said yesterday that plans were in place to launch the porn channels.

"The channels were to have been launched in December but management decided to postpone it. The launch will now be on January 20," Connor said.

This is despite an application for a court interdict prohibiting the introduction of the channels by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

Judgment was reserved to Wednesday.

Icasa will hold public hearings into the "adult" channels today.

African Christian Democratic Party president Kenneth Meshoe said porn channels were not contributing to "the new South Africa".

He accused TopTV of not caring about the values of South African society.

The Family Policy Institute said: "If TopTV succeeds in launching porn channels in South Africa, it will open the floodgates for broadcasters to open the sewers and release a flood of filth into our communities."

"Porn must be eradicated!" reads an alert on the institute's website.