Radio, unlike TV, is not able to incorporate Internet functionality. The SABC is under pressure to deliver on content quality and is set to continue losing sophisticated viewers and listeners. Watermeyer says if the SABC's bottom line continues to be put under pressure, some services could be sold off. SA lags behind the US by two to three years in online advertising and should see an advertising boom in the next few years. But there is still a lack of telecommunications infrastructure and it is expected that the new media will underperform the telecommunications sector over the next few years.
Print faces one of the largest challenges in convergence.
But analysts say SA's relatively low online population will buffer the print industry and allow content providers more time to revise strategies. As far as television goes, the picture looks brighter. One analyst says the potential of interactive television should allow the medium to withstand most challenges created by the Internet - by challenging it in the same space. Television is expected to converge into a universal medium, combining online content, radio, print and cinema, the analyst says. In SA, interactive television, which already has a foothold, is expected to grow in popularity.