South African entertainment platform, black, was named as a finalist in the prestigious Video on Demand Innovation category at the 12th Annual Telecoms Awards in Dubai.

The Telecoms World Awards brings together leading industry players each year. This was black’s first international nomination. Locally the platform was named Stuff Magazine’s Entertainment App of the Year in South Africa in 2017.

black was nominated as a finalist alongside other entertainment offerings from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, together with BluTV, iflix, STARZ Play and Zee Entertainment with Orange TV in Egypt taking top honours.

Unlike many other VOD (Video-on-Demand) offerings black offers consumers a wide range of entertainment choices that stretch beyond movies and series and kids shows and offers movie rentals, gaming and live TV channels like Fox and Sony.

In addition black is available across all cellular networks in South Africa.

Included in its unique value proposition is the ability to choose how long you want to subscribe to the platform for. Unlike traditional media models where customers have to choose from a standard monthly package, black bucks this trend by allowing consumers to choose what they want to watch, at what price and for how long.

Chief executive of black, Surie Ramasary, says this is an indication that South African companies can be international trail blazers and we are very proud of this achievement.

“We are very honoured to have our work recognised at the highest levels within the Telecommunications & Digital Media sector. black has a unique value proposition that the world has not seen before. It is disruptive and the world is taking notice.”

She adds: “black continues to show continued growth in South Africa and we are pleased with the way it is going. To-date we have had over one million app installations and consumers continue to engage with the platform.”

Cell C launched black in November 2017 as a network agnostic entertainment platform available to any subscriber with an Internet connection. For the first time in South Africa, customers are also able to purchase content using mobile prepaid airtime in addition to vouchers and purchases via debit and credit card.

To ensure black remains the most affordable entertainment option to consumers, black streaming is zero-rated on Cell C’s network meaning customers only pay for content and not for downloading black content.