DStv price evolution from 2000 to 2013

Ok so I've visited Sky's website... and ordered a bouquet something similar to DSTV premium... here's the order:

Your order

Monthly costs
Sky TV £47.50 - includes Sky Entertainment Extra and Sports Pack
HD Pack - £10.25 (£5 for 6 Months - 5.25 Off HD)

Monthly cost with offers: £57.25


Or I could get the Sky World package... includes Sport, many HD channels and some 3D channels:

Sky World - £65.75
Entertainment Extra, Movies and Sports
All in stunning high definition
Sky World gives you the best of Sky TV - Entertainment Extra, 12 movie channels and six sports channels.

With Sky World, Sky+HD and a 3D TV, you can also watch TV in a new dimension with Sky 3D at no extra cost.


Do little arithmetic:

£57.25 x 13.67 = R 782.60
£65.75 x 13.67 = R 898.80

Interesting???
 
Hicklethumb said:
Business, yes. But they also hold the monopoly on the market. So profiteering is a big no-no. Inflation isn't really an excuse. As other countries who have Pay TV seem to be getting cheaper(although they tend to have proper competition in the market as well).
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. Their profits are obscene for a terrible service. My home does not have DSTV, but I still see repeats when visiting family who have DSTV in the Western Cape for a couple of weeks.
 
remind me why you pay to use your PVR functionality? (R70?)
That functionality is inherent to the product is it not?
I dont pay BMW a fee every time I open the fuel cap? and that's an inherent feature? ( perhaps a poor comparison :) )
 
blunt said:
It's a business not a non-profit organisation.. unfortunately :) profits are the entire point; without good profits there are fewer investors, less room for growth.. etc.

The increases seem relatively normal along the lines with annual inflation; from what i see.

Don't get me wrong, still think DSTV is a total rip - which is why I've gone the Netflix route.
Click to expand...

Completely agree...

But if their profit percentages are going up and up every year after the increases, then they are profiteering and for a monopoly that is a big no-no.

You would expect the increase to keep their profitability percentage in a relatively stable range.
 
BGE said:
Ok so I've visited Sky's website... and ordered a bouquet something similar to DSTV premium... here's the order:

Your order

Monthly costs
Sky TV £47.50 - includes Sky Entertainment Extra and Sports Pack
HD Pack - £10.25 (£5 for 6 Months - 5.25 Off HD)

Monthly cost with offers: £57.25


Or I could get the Sky World package... includes Sport, many HD channels and some 3D channels:

Sky World - £65.75
Entertainment Extra, Movies and Sports
All in stunning high definition
Sky World gives you the best of Sky TV - Entertainment Extra, 12 movie channels and six sports channels.

With Sky World, Sky+HD and a 3D TV, you can also watch TV in a new dimension with Sky 3D at no extra cost.


Do little arithmetic:

£57.25 x 13.67 = R 782.60
£65.75 x 13.67 = R 898.80

Interesting???
Click to expand...

You cant just do conversions like that and expect it to be accurate as there are so many other factors involved. For example minimum wage for people over 21 is about £6.20
 
Unhappy438 said:
You cant just do conversions like that and expect it to be accurate as there are so many other factors involved. For example minimum wage for people over 21 is about £6.20
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Sure... then get the average income of a middle class UK family, and compare it to a middle class SA family... would that help unskew the comparison?
 
Average income in UK : 24000 pounds (roughly)
Average Income in SA : R119542, so 8,716.10 pounds. Round it up to 8800 pounds.

So as a percentage of average salary per country

Sky : 2.8% (on SkyTV with HD)
DStv : 5.75% (Dstv with PVR access)

Ever so slightly different.
 
As an addition to a previous post of mine regarding profit percentages.

It does seem from a cursory look that Dstv is running at a profit margin in the 30% range.. (it does seem to fluctuate up and down a little bit, but I only did the sums on 2 years)
Whereas Sky seems to run at a profit margin of around 18%.

It does seem a little bit daft to run a luxury services company at a profit margin that high, especially in these economic times.. I would have reduced the profit margin just to keep as many customers as possible.
 
ToxicBunny said:
As an addition to a previous post of mine regarding profit percentages.

It does seem from a cursory look that Dstv is running at a profit margin in the 30% range.. (it does seem to fluctuate up and down a little bit, but I only did the sums on 2 years)
Whereas Sky seems to run at a profit margin of around 18%.

It does seem a little bit daft to run a luxury services company at a profit margin that high, especially in these economic times.. I would have reduced the profit margin just to keep as many customers as possible.
Click to expand...

So competition = 12% reduction is price?? That's not much really!
 
ToxicBunny said:
Average income in UK : 24000 pounds (roughly)
Average Income in SA : R119542, so 8,716.10 pounds. Round it up to 8800 pounds.

So as a percentage of average salary per country

Sky : 2.8% (on SkyTV with HD)
DStv : 5.75% (Dstv with PVR access)

Ever so slightly different.
Click to expand...

True... but they gotta contend with that crappy UK weather... :D
 
BGE said:
Ok so I've visited Sky's website... and ordered a bouquet something similar to DSTV premium... here's the order:

Your order

Monthly costs
Sky TV £47.50 - includes Sky Entertainment Extra and Sports Pack
HD Pack - £10.25 (£5 for 6 Months - 5.25 Off HD)

Monthly cost with offers: £57.25


Or I could get the Sky World package... includes Sport, many HD channels and some 3D channels:

Sky World - £65.75
Entertainment Extra, Movies and Sports
All in stunning high definition
Sky World gives you the best of Sky TV - Entertainment Extra, 12 movie channels and six sports channels.

With Sky World, Sky+HD and a 3D TV, you can also watch TV in a new dimension with Sky 3D at no extra cost.


Do little arithmetic:

£57.25 x 13.67 = R 782.60
£65.75 x 13.67 = R 898.80

Interesting???
Click to expand...

No it ain't. Look at salary comparison and you will see a huge gap between what a person earns and spends in the UK compared to SA where it virtually hand to mouth.
 
BGE said:
So competition = 12% reduction is price?? That's not much really!
Click to expand...

Don't forget, this is a very overall profit margin... so it wouldn't be a 12% reduction in price.

If MC split out their packages in a a way thats similar to Sky, you would find that some people would save lots, and others wouldn't.
 
One thing I've noticed with DSTV is that while the repeats stay the same, the ads seem to get renewed quite often!
 
BGE said:
Sure... then get the average income of a middle class UK family, and compare it to a middle class SA family... would that help unskew the comparison?
Click to expand...

Well it would make it slightly more accurate but there are probably at least another dozen influential factors. Making financial comparisons like this between the UK and South Africa difficult. Another factor off the top of my head would have to be subscriber numbers. I can imagine a larger subscriber base will pay off the infrastructure faster, thus affording a general price drop. If i sat down and thought about it, im sure i could come up with many other factors.
 
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BGE said:
Ok so I've visited Sky's website... and ordered a bouquet something similar to DSTV premium... here's the order:

Your order

Monthly costs
Sky TV £47.50 - includes Sky Entertainment Extra and Sports Pack
HD Pack - £10.25 (£5 for 6 Months - 5.25 Off HD)

Monthly cost with offers: £57.25


Or I could get the Sky World package... includes Sport, many HD channels and some 3D channels:

Sky World - £65.75
Entertainment Extra, Movies and Sports
All in stunning high definition
Sky World gives you the best of Sky TV - Entertainment Extra, 12 movie channels and six sports channels.

With Sky World, Sky+HD and a 3D TV, you can also watch TV in a new dimension with Sky 3D at no extra cost.


Do little arithmetic:

£57.25 x 13.67 = R 782.60
£65.75 x 13.67 = R 898.80

Interesting???
Click to expand...

Yes... that's all well and good. But for that price there's uncapped broadband thrown in as well as all the latest content!
 
BGE said:
Ok so I've visited Sky's website... and ordered a bouquet something similar to DSTV premium... here's the order:

Your order

Monthly costs
Sky TV £47.50 - includes Sky Entertainment Extra and Sports Pack
HD Pack - £10.25 (£5 for 6 Months - 5.25 Off HD)

Monthly cost with offers: £57.25


Or I could get the Sky World package... includes Sport, many HD channels and some 3D channels:

Sky World - £65.75
Entertainment Extra, Movies and Sports
All in stunning high definition
Sky World gives you the best of Sky TV - Entertainment Extra, 12 movie channels and six sports channels.

With Sky World, Sky+HD and a 3D TV, you can also watch TV in a new dimension with Sky 3D at no extra cost.


Do little arithmetic:

£57.25 x 13.67 = R 782.60
£65.75 x 13.67 = R 898.80

Interesting???
Click to expand...

Is it just me but it looks like you can get the Sports Pack by itself? If I add it to my basket it shows the monthly cost as free too?
 
Can someone please explain the economics to me? DSTV buy their content and distribute it via signal to households. The number of households do not impact their costs. So does it not make economic sense to sell the signal at a much lesser price to much more people? It is a win-win situation. More people can afford DSTV and DSTV make higher profit. Or is DSTV too short sighted by greed to understand this?
 
cAv said:
Is it just me but it looks like you can get the Sports Pack by itself? If I add it to my basket it shows the monthly cost as free too?
Click to expand...

Nah, you need one of the base packages before you can have sports.
 
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