Top TV launches Saturday

The first competition for South Africa's only pay television service, DStv, was expected to launch this weekend, the Mail & Guardian Online reports.

TopTV will offer a total of 55 channels in bouquets that range from R99 to R249 per month.

New TopTV subscribers were expected to pay R499 for a new decoder, satellite dish and installation.

TopTV's range of channels will include six news channels, four religious channels, a movie channel, a Bollywood and a Nollywood channel, a football channel, a sports-news channel, an education channel, a fashion channel, a lifestyle channel, a Portuguese channel and a range of audio music channels.

Subscribers will also have access to the four current terrestrial free-to-air channels run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and e.tv.