Johannesburg – A foreign company has filed urgent papers at the Joburg High Court to force e.tv to pull off soapies Scandal and Imbewu – The Seed from its video-streaming platform after accusing it of breaching their R38-million licensing contract.
PCCW Vuclip PTE LTD (based in Singapore), which trades as Vuclip, has applied for an urgent court order to interdict the free-to-air channel from streaming the two soapies on its newly launched video-streaming platform eVod.
If the court rules in Vuclip’s favour, the legion of e.tv’s video-streaming subscribers will be denied opportunities to watch their favourite Scandal actors including former EFF MP Fana Mokoena, Joyce Skefu, Sihle Ndaba and Mapaseka Koetle-Nyokong, and Imbewu – The Seed’s Leleti Khumalo.
In court papers in our possession, Vuclip’s Ryan Solovei said its Singapore- based company had through its South African subsidiary, VIU South Africa, purchased exclusive licences from e.tv to stream two local soapies, Scandal and Imbewu, for over R37-million on December 31 2019.
In terms of the contract, which was supposed to end in 2024, Vuclip was allowed to stream all current episodes of the soapies as well as back catalogue or historic episodes, which aired at least 12 months ago.
He said the free-to-air channel had, however, unlawfully cancelled these agreements after alleging that Vuclip, which enjoys a 2.5-million audience, was suing the soap operas for reasons not authorised by the agreements.
This after discovering that a third party, Philosopher App, was unlawfully pirating these soapies and broadcasting them on its online video-streaming platform Philosopher: Stream Mzansi SA Soapies.
Solovei said this had caused immense financial harm to Vuclip, while it was still contractually obliged to pay e.tv the substantial licence fees for exclusive rights to use the soapies.
Vuclip had reported the piracy to e.tv, he said. Solovei said instead of taking action, e.tv had accused it of colluding with outside forces to pirate its content and opted to cancel the licensing agreement and launched its own video-streaming platform e-Video on Demand platform or eVod last week, where it vaunted its exclusive rights to local soap operas, including Scandal and Imbewu.
“The ineluctable conclusion is that e.tv engineered a contrived cancellation of Vuclip’s licensing agreements to gain access to exclusive content, which was exclusively licensed to Vuclip, but which e.tv wished to broadcast on its own platform,” read the papers. He also said Vuclip wrote to e.tv and requested it to reinstate the two soapies, which he said generated 20% of its revenue, but it refused.
eMedia said that they are aware of the pending case and allegations made by VIU.
eMedia told Sunday World they had a licensing agreement in place with VIU to stream the eMedia owned programmes Scandal and Imbewu, which it recently terminated due to piracy concerns.
“We have a responsibility to safeguard the Intellectual Property and integrity of our programming content, and we are acting in the best interest of all our stakeholders. Piracy threatens the livelihoods of many and we have a duty to act against it,” said Megan Oosthuyse, eTV’s account manager.
A court date has been set for Tue 17th August and eMedia will be defending the motion
Also read:
Muvhango welcomes new actress Angela Atlang
Grieving granny tells of amapiano king Mpura’s last wish
Covid-19 positive cases hit ‘Generations: The Legacy’
Listen to Lwandle Ndaba’s diss track about Max Lichaba here
Max Lichaba hits out at step son
Sophie Ndaba is back in the spotlight
Khanyi’s boyfriend accused of being part of vehicle scam
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
