A portion of the $700 million that Gateway Telecommunications has received for the sale of its subsidiaries to Vodacom will be invested in GTV, Gateway's satellite pay-TV arm.

"Following Gateway's tremendous success in African telecommunications, we believe that the media industry -- and, in particular, pay-television -- represents the next great investment opportunity on the continent," said GTV founder Julian McIntyre.

GTV announced Tuesday that it will invest an additional $35 million in its African operations in a move that will further fuel its redefinition of the pay-TV market. The additional funds will bring the total capital invested into GTV to almost $200 million.

With further investment expected over the coming months, the total outlay makes GTV one of the biggest investments in the history of African media, McIntyre said.

Consumer demand for the direct-to-home satellite service has resulted in the company becoming Africa's fastest growing pay-television service.

GTV launched a year ago when it won broadcast rights for the English Premier Football League, beating out South Africa's DStv, which had held a monopoly on pay television until that time.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.