Here’s how much money Multichoice makes from each DStv subscriber

bwana said:
I'd be interested in a definitive answer as to if you can or, as I suspect, if they've taken steps to prevent it.

I'm still waiting to hear on that consumer beneficial monopoly... because at the end of they day we're [typically] consumers, after all. :)
Click to expand...

But, consumer beneficial dynamics are at work - what with Netflix etc. So, if the consumers do not think this is beneficial for them, they will move.

I just detest the reasoning that DSTV is the reason for pirating.
 
cygx1 said:
So how come in the UK for example one can choose from Sky, Virgin, BT just off the top of my head...?
Click to expand...

Because it is a different market. Just because DSTV were smarter, back in the day, than it's competitors does not make them evil per se. But, having said that, and as per my previous post, market dynamics are changing things.
 
Nick333 said:
Multichoice owes it's position to exactly that.
Click to expand...

Not so. They are not state protected. They have done so by using their buying muscle to ensure they have FRR rights on all transponders at the 68.5 degree East orbital position. This effectively means they have a market monopoly on DTH.
 
Geoff.D said:
Not so. They are not state protected. They have done so by using their buying muscle to ensure they have FRR rights on all transponders at the 68.5 degree East orbital position. This effectively means they have a market monopoly on DTH.
Click to expand...
It's exactly so. They were the sole licence holder of a pay TV licence in this country for decades. They built their bankroll from a state sanctioned protected position and no new player can hope to compete.
 
cygx1 said:
So how come in the UK for example one can choose from Sky, Virgin, BT just off the top of my head...?
Click to expand...

Because over the UK, there is no single company having total access to ALL transponder capacity over the favoured orbital position, as well as a number of orbital positions closely placed together allowing reception with one multi satellite antenna or an antenna equipped with a special set of hornfeeds.
 
Nick333 said:
It's exactly so. They were the sole licence holder of a pay TV licence in this country for decades. They built their bankroll from a state sanctioned protected position and no new player can hope to compete.
Click to expand...
Yes they may no longer be a legal monopoly but they used that period of single provider to entrench themselves and erect barriers for new players. But they're private so Arthur is cool with their de facto monopoly. MTN and Vodacom also enjoyed a period of exclusivity that allowed them to corner the market and make it hard for new entrants to make any money after the market opened up.
 
Thanks, Geoff. I'm definitely out of date. I last tried composite recording off a decoder at least a decade ago. Ran inputs and outputs via a Kramer matrix switch. These days the Explora Xtraview decoders talk to the various TVs around the house via HDMI extenders over CAT5e.

Somewhere in a storeroom I still have several Hitachi and JVC VCRs supporting PAL, NTSC and Secam, and a Philips DVD recorder/PVR. What is to become of them I leave to my heirs - they'll probably turf them. Useless relics of a bygone age before DRM.
 
Nick333 said:
It's exactly so. They were the sole licence holder of a pay TV licence in this country for decades. They built their bankroll from a state sanctioned protected position and no new player can hope to compete.
Click to expand...

They were very clever with the cleverly crafted "grandfather clause". That only says the original management team were very very clever. It does not mean it was state protected. So it is just sour grapes from everyone else now, trying to justify their indignation at being caught fast asleep with their pants down around their ankles.

But the new management team are nowhere near as clever. MC used to be an innovator in the business, technically and in the business strategy of DTH. They are now very much a "me too" operation, losing ground in most areas.
 
Arthur said:
Thanks, Geoff. I'm definitely out of date. I last tried composite recording off a decoder at least a decade ago. Ran inputs and outputs via a Kramer matrix switch. These days the Explora Xtraview decoders talk to the various TVs around the house via HDMI extenders over CAT5e.

Somewhere in a storeroom I still have several Hitachi and JVC VCRs supporting PAL, NTSC and Secam, and a Philips DVD recorder/PVR. What is to become of them I leave to my heirs - they'll probably turf them. Useless relics of a bygone age before DRM.
Click to expand...

:D :D
I have slowly "terminated" my VCR recorders. I even had a Betamax machine still working a year ago, when the main motor drives finally konked in. There is stil one LG VCR in my cabinet that is used occasionally to play VCR tapes made with our VCR camera, and a libraryof VCR tapes that were bought at some stage.

I strip the VCRs for the RF modulators ---- very useful bits of electronics. The new decoders (after the SD PVR) have pretty useless RF modulators in them. Still have an extensive RF distribution cable network in my home that is now basically redundant as there is as of last month, only one analogue TV that works. The last one is a small black and white portable in my workshop, made in Swaziland. In the days when we had to fiddle these things to receive the sound carrier in SA .... that TV is now 42 years old! Not bad for a TV assembled on the continent.
 
Nick333 said:
It's exactly so. They were the sole licence holder of a pay TV licence in this country for decades. They built their bankroll from a state sanctioned protected position and no new player can hope to compete.
Click to expand...

Actually, that is interesting. Did not realise that. If true, I agree.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X