MultiChoice reaches 2 million subscribers

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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The South Africa subscriber base alone today stands at just under 1.5 million DStv subscribers.

“Our first milestone came in 2005 when we registered the 1 000 000th DStv subscriber in South Africa, and we are pleased that we have managed to double this number across the continent,” said Nolo Letele, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa.

According to MultiChoice they are determined to remain the leading pay television operator in South Africa and are now focused on accelerating the roll out of their business strategy which is centred on consistent growth.

The pay-TV provider has introduced varied tiers of its DStv bouquet to meet demand across all income segments and continues to enhance the television viewing experience with new offerings using the latest technology.

Currently, the company provides four DStv bouquets, giving customers a choice to subscribe for a service that suits their lifestyle and their pocket.

These are DStv Premium, which is targeted at high-income earners and provides more than 70 video channels, 40 audio channels, 6 data channels and 28 radio stations.

DStv Compact targets the middle income bracket and offers subscribers 27 video channels, 5 data channels and 28 radio stations.

DStv Select targets the lower to middle income bracket and provides customers 16 video channels and 4 audio channels.

The entry level bouquet is DStv EasyView, which was introduced in 2002 with only four channels and has been revamped to improve the service and now includes 10 video channels, five data channels and 28 radio stations.

“We currently have just under 170 000 [Compact bouquet] subscribers,” said Nolo.

New technologies which are being tested by Multichoice include true live broadcast on a cellphone, DStv broadband via a personal computer, video on demand and High Definition television. According to Multichoice the latter is “set to bring clarity of image such as has never been seen before on our television screens”.

MultiChoice’s newest company DStv Mobile, is currently investigating and trialing technologies that according to them will play a role in the transmission of the 2010 World Cup; namely DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld). It is a mobile broadcast technology that allows for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to a mobile phone.

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