DSTV channels - what they cost

hellfire

Honorary Master
Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
12,964
Reaction score
3,038
Location
Jhb, SA
I did some basic calculations based on their current package pricing and differences between packages. This is what I came up with:
This channel bundle costs R79.00:
  1. TCM
  2. AfricaMagic+
  3. The Home Channel
  4. Fashion TV
  5. SuperSport Action
  6. KidsCo
  7. Channel O
  8. BBC World News
  9. CNN International
  10. NDTV247
  11. Summit TV
  12. CCTV4

These bundles cost R87.00:
  1. M-Net Action
  2. kykNET
  3. Zone Reality
  4. Discovery World
  5. National Geographic
  6. Nickelodeon
  7. MTV Base
  8. MK
  9. One Gospel
  10. Sky News
or
  1. M-Net Action
  2. Mzansi Magic
  3. Universal Channel
  4. M-Net Series
  5. Zone Reality
  6. ESPN
  7. Discovery World
  8. National Geographic
  9. Nickelodeon
  10. MTV Base
  11. One Gospel
  12. Sky News

This bundle costs R173.00:
  1. M-Net Stars
  2. SONY
  3. SONY Max
  4. AfricaMagic
  5. Vuzu
  6. BBC Lifestyle
  7. The Style Network
  8. SuperSport 3
  9. SuperSport 4
  10. TellyTrack
  11. Animal Planet
  12. Ignition
  13. Cartoon Network
  14. KooWee
  15. Trace TV
  16. Afro Music
  17. eNews

This channel bundle costs R417.00
  1. M-Net
  2. M-Net Movies 1
  3. M-Net Movies 2
  4. BBC Entertainment
  5. Discovery Channel
  6. E! Entertainment Television
  7. Travel Channel
  8. SuperSport 1
  9. SuperSport 2
  10. SuperSport 5
  11. SuperSport 6
  12. SuperSport 7
  13. SuperSport MaXimo 1
  14. ESPN Classic
  15. BBC Knowledge
  16. HISTORY
  17. Crime & Investigation Network
  18. Nat Geo Wild
  19. Boomerang
  20. Disney Channel
  21. Cbeebies
  22. MTV
  23. VH-1
  24. Euro News
  25. Russia Today
  26. Bloomberg
  27. RAI International
  28. BVN
  29. ERT
  30. Deutsche Welle
  31. RTP International
  32. TV5 Monde Afrique

I'm sure with a little more playing around, we can induce to a more transparent degree the approximate costs of individual channels.
I am aware of the cross subsidisation factors that MC claim are inherent in their pricing, however if there is any intent on the part of MC to keep with the spirit of the CPA then here are some additional bundles that could theoretically be offered tomorrow with no re-pricing.
 
You could probably use an assumed MNET and CSN cost based on the old mnet decoders and adjusting for inflation to elimiate a few more.
 
Huh, what package gets you ss1 and ss2 without premium which is R590?

EDIT:

Oh this is hypothetical, sorry
 
Let me make it easier for you:

This channel bundle costs R79.00:

cr@p no one watches

These bundles cost R87.00:

pron on fridays
cr@p no one watches
or
pron on fridays
something that could perhaps compete with SABC

This bundle costs R173.00:

okay for the first month until you've seen everything ten times

This channel bundle costs R417.00

R100 worth of content subsidizing SA sport

EDIT:

EDIT:
Oh this is hypothetical, sorry
 
Let me make it easier for you:

This channel bundle costs R79.00:

cr@p no one watches

These bundles cost R87.00:

pron on fridays
cr@p no one watches
or
pron on fridays
something that could perhaps compete with SABC

This bundle costs R173.00:

okay for the first month until you've seen everything ten times

This channel bundle costs R417.00

R100 worth of content subsidizing SA sport

EDIT:

No argument from me.
MC claims they can't offer just SS1,SS2 and some extra sporting channels thereafter. They can. And it will be somewhere less than R417 per month.
 
No argument from me.
MC claims they can't offer just SS1,SS2 and some extra sporting channels thereafter. They can. And it will be somewhere less than R417 per month.

I think sport fanatics will pay whatever they charge, so its not that they cant but that there is no incentive to.
I would like to see what they could charge for a decent bundle without any sport.
 
I think sport fanatics will pay whatever they charge, so its not that they cant but that there is no incentive to.
I would like to see what they could charge for a decent bundle without any sport.

Depends on your 'decent' choice of composition, I guess.
If you remove sport from the R417 bundle, then they could charge something less than R417
 
There are 2 primary reasons that I pay for DSTV
- Sport
- Kids

The kids stuff I can probably get anywhere, the sport I can't. That doesn't mean that the rest of channels are chopped liver though, I still watch them enough to feel I'd miss them if they weren't there, which puts me off the proposition of pay-per-channel a bit, I still watch a few of them, but none of them enough to pay for them if I had to think about it. I think that also helps them get away with the amount of repeats, you aren't directly paying for it, so you may not think about it as hard.

I think for me, the current cost in just on the cusp. I'm not thrilled about it but it's juuuuuust not quite high enough for me to bother to look for alternatives and I'd reckon that most subscribers are in that boat as well.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X