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South Africa’s largest pay TV broadcaster DStv has made a number of changes to its products and services in 2020.
These changes come as many wealthy and middle-class South African households are adopting Internet-based streaming services over television entertainment due to the increased availability of fiber and video-on-demand services.
More recently, parent company MultiChoice reported a fall of 100,000 Premium and Compact Plus DStv subscribers in its annual results for 2020.
However, the company’s mass market segment experienced significant growth, increasing from 500,000 subscribers to a total of 4 million among its DStv Family, Access and EasyView packages.
This could be an indication that you are reorienting your strategy to have lower-income households as your main target market, but an important deal. announced earlier this year shows that DStv has yet to give up with its Premium subscribers.
Here are all the big changes DStv made to its products throughout 2020.
Price increase
Following a price freeze on its package rates in 2019, DStv again raised the prices of most of its bouquets this year.
However, the increases were quite modest, with the largest jump in R14 in the DStv family line of business, resulting in an increase of just over 5%.
The Premium package saw your subscription increased from R809 to R819, while the access fee jumped from R95 to R100.
The following table summarizes the price increases for the different packages, with the largest jump of R14 in the field of the DStv family.
| DStv price increases | ||
|---|---|---|
| packages | Price 2019 | Price 2020 |
| DStv Premium | R809 | R819 |
| DStv Compact Plus | R519 | R529 |
| DStv Compact | R399 | R399 |
| DStv family | R265 | R279 |
| DStv access | R105 | R110 |
| DStv EasyView | R29 | R29 |
| Accessories | Price 2019 | Price 2020 |
| Access fee | R95 | R100 |
Channels cut, added and modified
DStv modified its channel offering on numerous occasions throughout the year.
It removed two popular UK channels, ITV Choice and BBC First, and also removed the independent movie channel Sundance.
Meanwhile, it added a total of three new channels. ESPN and ESPN2 focus primarily on American sports and additional soccer coverage, while fliekNET offers movies in Afrikaans.
The following table shows a summary of the affected channels, as well as when they were added or removed.
| Changes in the DStv channel – 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fallen | Additional | |
| SABC again – June 1, 2020 Sundance – June 1, 2020 ITV choice – June 4, 2020 BBC first – September 1, 2020 Disney XD – October 1, 2020 fox life – October 1, 2020 |
ESPN – July 29, 2020 ESPN2 – July 29, 2020 fliekNET – September 1, 2020 |
|
SuperSport theme changes
DStv revised the structure of its sports channels, opting for thematic channels and eliminating the numbering system it has used for the last two decades.
There are now dedicated channels for leagues and sports, including PSL, Premier League, La Liga, rugby, cricket, golf, tennis, and motorsports.
Showmax Pro and DStv Now
Sport is one of the most attractive offers in the DStv Premium package, and many South Africans have asked DStv to offer their sports programming separately or as part of an online package.
One of MultiChoice’s biggest moves this year was launching sports content on an enhanced version of its Showmax standalone streaming service.
Showmax Pro is available in several sub-Saharan countries and made its debut in South Africa August 19.
Offers a wide range of sports coverage, including top athletics, soccer and boxing events, priced at R449.
However, the service does not offer access to many of South Africa’s most popular sports, including major rugby, cricket, motorsports, tennis and golf tournaments and events.
As part of an initiative to provide the public with essential information about the COVID-19 pandemic, MultiChoice began offering a free version of DStv Now with news and educational content.
While it initially offered most of the 24-hour news channels in its Premium package for free, this came to an end after the crash.
Currently the package only includes eNCA and Al Jazeera, as well as several educational channels for children.
New decoders
Multiple choice Announced successor to its Explora 3 decoder, the Explora Ultra, during its August exhibition.
MultiChoice said that Explora Ultra offers the same PVR features as previous models, including the ability to record, rent BoxOffice movies, and access DStv Catch Up.
Additionally, it adds support for third-party streaming apps that can be accessed alongside DStv, Showmax, and Box Office. Some of these apps will be able to stream in 4K.
It comes with a new remote that provides quick access to these third-party streaming apps.
MultiChoice too unveiled the Streama – a smart TV box that will allow customers to use DStv with just an internet connection in addition to streaming from platforms like Showmax, YouTube, and JOOX.
The release dates and prices for these two devices have yet to be confirmed.
Netflix and Amazon Prime partnership
Perhaps one of the most surprising announcements from MultiChoice this year came during its annual results presentation.
The company said there was entered into agreements with Netflix and Amazon to integrate these services into your next Explora device for South African customers.
This was an unexpected turn of events because Netflix is generally seen as a great rival to DStv and its Showmax streaming service.
The exact nature of this deal is still unclear, so it has not been confirmed what benefits customers will get from using Netflix or Amazon Prime Video on the new Explora.
The deal is currently being investigated by the Competition Commission, so DStv has yet to launch the new decoder.
Add Movies
DStv has also launched its Add Movies service, offering the broadcaster’s dedicated movie channels M-Net Movies 1, M-Net Movies 2, and FliekNET as an add-on for R99 per month.
The feature, which was first announced on August, is available to Compact Plus, Compact, Access, EasyView, India and Family customers.
Premium subscribers already have access to these channels.
Independent streaming service
DStv indicated already in 2018 that it would launch an independent transmission service that will not require the installation of a satellite dish or decoder.
It was initially intended to be released before the end of March 2020, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During its exhibition in August, it finally confirmed that the independent streaming service will be accessible through the DStv app on a variety of platforms, and new customers will be able to subscribe to this service without the need for a satellite connection.
While many analysts expected the company to offer this service at a discounted rate compared to its satellite offering, MultiChoice South Africa CEO Mark Rayner explained that it should not be considered a separate product and therefore would have the same price than normal DStv packages.
“You still buy Premium, Compact, Access, etc., depending on what your budget allows, but just choose your access method.”
Rayner told MyBroadband that once DStv’s broadcast-only offer is launched commercially, there will be an e-commerce-like registration process that asks customers to choose between a broadcast or satellite broadcast offering.
There is currently no confirmed release date for these new offerings announced by MultiChoice, but the company recently changed the name from its DStv Now streaming app to “DStv,” which could be the first step toward launching this standalone offering.
Now Read: The New Plan to Make DStv’s Top Sports Free to Watch
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