e-TV is breaking new ground for commercial broadcasting in South Africa. With only the state broadcaster, SABC, serving the same market, e-TV is the country’s first free-to-air commercial station – the non-subscription programming available to anyone with a TV and an antenna. This helps to explain the company’s enthusiastic embrace of call center technology.

Programming is a broadcaster’s currency, but at e-TV, the call center drives alternative moneymaking initiatives. e-TV’s business plan views the call center as a profit-generating center, rather than a cost center, serving multiple roles and needs throughout the organization. One of those roles is the creation and maintenance of a database of viewer comments required by the nation’s Independent Broadcasting Authority.