Johannesburg - Marcel Golding, the acting chief executive of e.tv, last week warned groups hoping to grab a slice of the economic empowerment pie to "face up to business realities and pay their way".
Golding denied that the empowerment component had been diluted by the approval of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to changes in the station`s shareholding structure.
Empowerment had been a crucial factor in e.tv winning the licence for South Africa`s first commercial television station.
Golding said the IBA decision, allowing Midi TV, e.tv`s parent company, to establish Sabido Investments as a new holding company, meant the station would have three shareholders: Sabido with 70 percent, Warner Brothers with 20 percent and Vula Communications Holdings with 10 percent.
In the previous structure Hoskens Consolidated Investment (HCI) held 26 percent, Vula had 25 percent and Warner Brothers had 20 percent. A string of minorities held small percentages of the remaining stake.
Golding said this arrangement, in which HCI had been paying for "cash-strapped minorities", had been untenable.
"The minorities had to contribute 50 percent of the capital of the business, but we at HCI were funding 80 percent," he said. "Vula contributed only R16 million of the R500 million that has been invested in the station."
Golding said the minority shareholders whose shares had been taken into Sabido had "not lost out completely"; they all had an option to come back later. "We have not changed the fundamentals. HCI itself is the principal and most successful black empowerment company on the JSE."
Golding said two victories for e.tv late last year - the rejection of a creditor`s application to wind up Midi TV and the IBA`s approval of changes to the shareholding structure - had opened the way for growth towards profitability this year.
He said a "hot" breakfast show starting in April and an expansion of e.tv`s transmitters to boost its reach would consolidate and increase its audience.
"Our sports portfolio will also be improved," he said, conceding that SABC and M-Net had dominated in this area so far.