Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) chairman Paris Mashile called an impromptu press conference to address various issues, including a dispute over late submission made by DStv owner MultiChoice.
Mashile announced that Mobile TV Consortium, which was leading a campaign to have MultiChoice disqualified, would also be disqualified, along with Super 5 Media.
Mobile TV's application was rejected on the grounds that the consortium was not in possession of a broadcasting services licence, while Super 5 was rejected for not having the stipulated number of bound copies of applications.
MultiChoice was disqualified for submitting its application after the deadline.
With DStv already screening advertisements for its mobile television service, competitors were already circling to have MultiChoice's application disqualified. When Icasa announced an invitation to apply for mobile television licences, the industry scrambled to get applications ready as Icasa only gave them a few weeks.
MultiChoice, which has been piloting the service in collaboration with MTN for the past few years, should have been the most easily prepared, but it missed the deadline.
Mobile TV Consortium immediately made an application to the South Gauteng High Court to have the window extended by a week, so it could have more time to prepare a convincing application, but this was denied.
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