DStv - Your time is up

Dolby said:
They should have a seperate Box Office app (or embed it into the DSTV Now app) - because I think Box Office isn't too bad.

Legally, there seems to be no way to get the latest movies legitimately - even if you want to pay.

I always thought things on Box Office would be available on Google Play, but Box Office is even before them.

As a non subscriber (been DSTV Free for 10 years), I am slightly envious of their Box Office ...
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You don't have to be a subscriber to access BO. You just pay more per movie if you stream BO via the Internet.
 
thabatao said:
Multichoice has been having so many priveliges and monopolies, it is time they start losing. Not only have they been the blue-eyed boys of the government, but they have negotiated some laws to protect them.
One such law is, NO other satelite TV network is allowed to have a PVR or no DVR's are allowed to be imported into South Africa because Multichoice has the monopoly and is the ONLY people who are allowed to have a digital video recorder on the market. Even the Competition Commission cannot touch them. The Competition Commission target stupid things, but the biggest corruption are left to go on unhindered.
I agree, Multichoice , your time is up. Pack your bags, switch off your satelite and go. We don't want you anymore and we don't need you anymore.
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Not sure if it is a law re the PVRs and DVRs. Maybe an agreement between DStv and other broadcasters (e-tv, etc)? The DVR issue is the Piracy paranoia that exists, which now has meant that even "copy once" is no longer available on the latest series of DStv decoders.


OVHD has been talking about a PVR decoders for a long time but nothing has hit the market that I know of. At the moment, the ONLY technical reason that keeps me as an EasyView subscriber is the PVR facility which has completely enslaved our family.
 
bwana said:
I didn't watch those when I had DSTV. Besides, there are other streaming services you can tack on for a nominal fee if that's what floats your boat.
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I hear this a lot, but nobody is willing to share the info of these "services".

Plus you have to add this to the Netfix cost then surely.
 
satanboy said:
And how many HD football, rugby, tennis golf matches or F1, World Class cycling races have you watched on Netflix? Your comparison isn't one at all.
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My wife likes FI, which we see for nothing in the UK. In SA the extra charge for the 'bouquet' (what a strange choice of name) is a few hundred Rand. The extra items in the bouquet are of no interest to either of us. I tried watching FI via the F1 website, but it is not available in SA. I can guess why. So she does without.

Freeview in the UK has been around for years. The relevant Minister seems unable to get it going meaningfully in SA. I don't know why, but think I can guess. Much the same as someone else in this discussion said.

DSTV have no idea how to win friends (amongst the general public, that is), and seem to have no idea how to tackle the challenge to their business model. User friendliness? They do not know the meaning of the concept.

The menu is archaic and slow. Over here the top right corner shows a small screen of the currrent selection, and the sound track, whilst you look for other programmes, or select ones available later. Convenient - and the pensioner rebate is 100%, not ZAR 70.

In the UK the BBC monopoly is much disliked, and costs something like ZAR 3000. They grossly overpay all their staff, particularly the admin people and the presenters. So SA is a bit better from that point of view.

Many of the free to air programmes I see here are exactly the same as the DSTV ones, with a similar incidence of adverts. So we pay more in SA, and DSTV have two income streams, subscriptions and advertising. We are not afflicted with the Gupta rubbish either.

A negative in the UK is Sky buying up most sporting rights. But for the most part I can live without them: I am certainly not going to pour money into Murdoch's pocket for a few soccer matches. I tend to watch them in SA out of sheer boredom with the DSTV offerings. They have countless channels, but if Nollywood, Afrikaans, and these weird 'religious' programmes do not float your boat, you are left with maybe 20 channels. Yes we have plenty of dross in the UK, but it isn't costing us!

Do I care if DSTV go bust? No. Something else will emerge. Or I can read some books - even ones of an improving nature!

NASPERS really only survive because of a Chinese connection, and that may go belly up anytime now. Looks like a sell to me.
 
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satanboy said:
And how many HD football, rugby, tennis golf matches or F1, World Class cycling races have you watched on Netflix? Your comparison isn't one at all.
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....and the rest of the article is as follows:

It is however, worth considering that unlike Netflix there is a ton of local content on offer through DStv. Channels such as AfricaMagic, Mzansi Magic and kykNET to name a few provide viewers access to local content. At time of writing there is very little, if any, African content on Netflix.

In addition DStv offers sports which is to our mind on of the biggest draw factors owing to the struggle we’ve had trying to stream sports legally online.

But something that DStv does better than Netflix can do is make things easy.

With DStv things are simple especially for those that aren’t technically inclined. You hit a button on a remote and DStv works. And when it doesn’t work there is ample support infrastructure in place. If something goes wrong with Netflix, well there’s an FAQ page.

While we might sound like DStv fan boys (we most certainly are not) at the end of the day DStv is the more expensive option and if you aren’t fussed with sports or local content then perhaps it’s worth ditching the service in favour of streaming options.

So yes, Netflix is the cheaper option but one should really consider what they want from the entertainment they pay for. If you really want to save money sign-up for Showmax which only costs R99 per month and gives you access to African content.

At the end of the day you as the consumer have the choice of paying DStv R23 016 over 24 months or Netflix R3 844.47 over 24 months so it doesn’t really matter which is cheaper because ultimately it boils down to what you want to spend your money on.
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...and that concludes the article.
 
Peon said:
Fellas,

Sorry if im derailing this thread a bit.

Does anyone know anything about these guys?

streamiptv.co.za
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Hey this is actually quite cool! Over 4000 channels with Sports and everything!
 
satanboy said:
And how many HD football, rugby, tennis golf matches or F1, World Class cycling races have you watched on Netflix? Your comparison isn't one at all.
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I agree that it isn't a proper comparison, but let me put this to you. Once you get into Netflix you find that DStv really does suck. Just speaking to a colleague of mine and he was complaining that there is one repeat after another.
The only thing I find lacking with Netflix is the option for sports. We would watch the big games at a pub or at mates' homes. This morning I was just playing around with StreamIPTV, and man was I surprised! A LOT of channels and good quality as well.

I showed a couple of guys now and they all cancelling their DSTV subscriptions now.
 
satanboy said:
I hear this a lot, but nobody is willing to share the info of these "services".

Plus you have to add this to the Netfix cost then surely.
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ESPN+ springs to mind. I know they have SuperRugby and a lot of internationals - rugby and cricket. Can't say for sure about the other sports you mentioned. Is $4.99 p/m.
 
satanboy said:
/looks out window

nope, not the UK at all.
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Surprising! I was comparing DSTV value for money with elsewhere. Not good. In theory the SA offering of 'free to air' could be just as good as the UK, but it seems that there is a certain lack of political will to get it moving, perhaps because DSTV prefer encryption and argue against unencrypted transmissions. I do not know why, but I think we can rule out impropriety: it is unthinkable that any Minister would permit that. It may be a technical issue, but there is no problem in other countries such as the UK: It could be simply commercial interests at play.
 
the common known thing about dstv is that if you are not a sports fan, it makes no sense to be on premium.
 
Frequent visitor said:
Surprising! I was comparing DSTV value for money with elsewhere. Not good. In theory the SA offering of 'free to air' could be just as good as the UK, but it seems that there is a certain lack of political will to get it moving, perhaps because DSTV prefer encryption and argue against unencrypted transmissions. I do not know why, but I think we can rule out impropriety: it is unthinkable that any Minister would permit that. It may be a technical issue, but there is no problem in other countries such as the UK: It could be simply commercial interests at play.
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It is not technical that is for sure. FTA is FTA all over the World. It is about business plans and how MC developed its business plan. The closest we have to FTA via satellite is the OVHD service. Here we "pay" for FTA channels if on DStv.

The broadcasters entitled to provide FTA which is really FTA are the SABC (via Sentech) and e-TV. DStv is a subscription service the "buys" channels that may be FTA overseas and then charges its customers to view those channels as part of the various packages.
 
Atti2de said:
I agree that it isn't a proper comparison, but let me put this to you. Once you get into Netflix you find that DStv really does suck. Just speaking to a colleague of mine and he was complaining that there is one repeat after another.
The only thing I find lacking with Netflix is the option for sports. We would watch the big games at a pub or at mates' homes. This morning I was just playing around with StreamIPTV, and man was I surprised! A LOT of channels and good quality as well.

I showed a couple of guys now and they all cancelling their DSTV subscriptions now.
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Just remember, you need a reliable, preferably fibre based Internet connection to get full value out of streamIPTV. Without that, you have nothing .. This is what makes these rather superficial comparisons between streaming services and broadcast services rather meaningless, whichever way you cut it.

Also, I suggest you all read the fine print carefully on the streamiptv website.
 
Petitions don't work with MonoChoice... Sorry, has been done NUMEROUS times before, even going back to the 90s
 
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