DSTV considering letting subscribers choose and pay for the channels they want, admits Netflix and the Internet are their biggest rival right now!

Batsirai Chikadaya Avatar

In a recent interview with CapeTalk, a South African Radio Station, M-Net CEO Yolisa Phahle spilled the beans on many hot topics surrounding DSTV, its present strategy, and future goals.

The Money Show by Bruce Whitfield hosted the CEO and asked a wide range of questions many subscribers have been burning to ask. According to their breakdown, these were the main comments provided by the CEO:

“DSTV is looking into letting consumers subscribe to only the channels they want.”

“Our biggest competitors are the Netflixes and Amazons, not other channels.”

“There is huge room for us to improve our content discovery. In that way, we’ll reduce the frustration of repeats.”

“It’s about creating content that is not available anywhere else.”

“We have so much more subscribers than five years ago.”

In the interview, the CEO highlighted subscriber misconception that choosing specific channels and paying for them would reduce their DSTV payments when in fact it would raise them as the cost of content rights were too expensive to leave it up to a few people who may want it with DSTV’s business model centered around pre-determined packages.

To hear more on DSTV from the CEO check out The Money Show’s really interesting Podcast interview, it’s 18 minutes and highly insightful!

10 comments

  1. kilotango

    yeah Multichoice, there’s always a bigger fish.

  2. Techie

    In a way they are,but then again Multichoice is owned by the same company that owns showmax so they are indirectly already active in that market,it now all comes down to improving their content.They have in a way already started the synerg of the two businesses as you can watch showmaxx through the DSTV explorer,(Using the explorer to connect to the internet).
    At the end of the day and whichever way we look at it on the African continent Multichoice still wins and they have a solid and innovative business.

  3. femi

    If we can choose channels and pay we would like it

  4. Gail

    I agree. We must choose our own channels. Too many repeats on the movies. Most people are sports lovers. SS1, SS2, etc. At the end of the day we will be paying nearly R1000 for watching the same garbage. We have bonds to pay, rates and water, electricity.

  5. Misheck One Zulu

    These guyz are doing this all because of Kwese which is about to blow next month.Kwese has bring back ESPN to Africa.Kwese is the real deal.

    1. Kwa Aaaa

      muchazvi fadza ne nhema… ana kwese zvanana izvi… supersport ine machannel hoooobhoooo.

  6. Client

    Most members are busy getting internet because we prefer to pay for things that are valuable to us and with the internet you download what you enjoy watching for much cheaper. With DSTV we pay a very high installment just too watch a few of the channels that we enjoy. Please stop with the repetition of movies if we wanted repetition we might as well buy dvd’s and watch it over and over. We are the consumers so keep us happy because if it was not for us there will be no multichoise.

  7. Techie

    Before people complain about the cost of DSTV vs paying for what you watch we must also look at this in a 360 degrees way.
    1.Subscribing to services such as Netflix does not necessarily result in you spending less if we factor in the cost of data etc.
    2.It will be literally impossible not to have repeat programmes in a 24hr TV channel and this is both from the supply of content and from a business profitability point of view.
    3.There is just not enough content in the market to have a channel that does not do repeat programmes. Say If the content was there and this is released to the market it will mean also that the artists, recording studios, actors etc will generally suffer a major blow financially as they will have to license their content at insanely low prices because of over supply.
    4.Another incorrect assumption is in saying services such as Netflix do not have repeats well that’s wrong they do,the only difference is you have a choice to not watch it again on Netflix whereas on DSTV you have to work with a schedule/TV programme guide.

    There are many factors to look at here but I still believe that DSTV still has a lot of variety for both local and international content, maybe not necessarily the latest but they do try.
    Netflix is fine and is a very good service but picture a scenario where you are a family of five each with their own preferences.
    It means after paying the monthly subscription you still have to consider the cost of data for each of the 5 family members.
    As long as data is still expensive I still think DSTV will maintain to offer the most cost effective and flexible option.

  8. Adam

    It’s a welcome idea that you pay for only the station of your choice and not every station that comes along with it.

  9. Runopanwarudo

    That is good. Hope this applies to outside SA dstv

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