MultiChoice may have to share decoder with rivals

[Syndyre]

Cellphone providers subsidise phones as well when signing a 2 yr contract but the phones aren't locked so the same should apply to Multichoice regardless if they subsidise or not.

True but Multichoice didn't make anyone sign a contract because they had a de facto monopoly.

It's not exactly as if UEC's decoders are top quality anyway. If anything this should hopefully open up the way for a broader range of decoders. It's kind of like being stuck with black and white screen Motorola's for 10 years, and now we might see the introduction of Nokia, SE, etc.

Anyway to be honest I don't see a UEC decoder being worth more than the R2000 that they charge you for it, so I don't see how Multichoice is subsidising anything.

Hopefully there'll be standard open access decoders made available that work with all the different options and don't block anything. They don't charge R2000 do they? Thought it was about R1000 including dish and installation.

 

[Shadow Dragon]

True enough but the point stands that there seems to be atleast going to be some competition in the pay tv sector. and i for one am damn glad about that. more choice even though 2 of these new companies don't particularly tickle my fancy

 

[Highflyer_GP]

True but Multichoice didn't make anyone sign a contract because they had a de facto monopoly.

Hopefully there'll be standard open access decoders made available that work with all the different options and don't block anything. They don't charge R2000 do they? Thought it was about R1000 including dish and installation.

If they do subsidise it, then perhaps people who are subscribers for longer than 12 months should not have their decoders forcibly blocked since they would have more than recouped the costs via the monthly subscription.

Not sure how much they go for now, but it was around R2000 when I got it incl. dish excl. installation.

 

[Syndyre]

If they do subsidise it, then perhaps people who are subscribers for longer than 12 months should not have their decoders forcibly blocked since they would have more than recouped the costs via the monthly subscription.

Not sure how much they go for now, but it was around R2000 when I got it incl. dish excl. installation.

Not a bad way to do it. I also remember it being a lot more when I got it but that was quite a while ago, I think they've come down quite a bit since then.

 

[Shadow Dragon]

That R2000 a is for the PVR decoder if i am not mistaken.

 

[redheadfan]

If DSTV want to maintain control of the decoder they are going to have to change their price model.

If you look at SKY in the UK their standard box is free. You just pay installation and set-up costs totalling R 420. And for their PVR box you pay R 1400 for the box.

 

[semiautomatix]

I think ICASA might get this one right... 5 industry players makes for much greater competition. If DSTV doesn't offer STBs that interoperate and the other 4 players do then they are going to lose a huge customer base. Either make you product the one I WANT to use and am not forced to use (its called competition - no comfortable monopoly for you) or I will go elsewhere.

That being said, I am fairly satisfied with DSTV - they just need to diversify. Let me choose the channels I wish to pay for across all operators. Then you all get a share of the pie. This st00pid "all or nothing" mentality of South African companies sickens me.

 

[Ricard]

Not that i like multichoice and dstv all that much but i do believe you guys are a tad ungrateful. without them we would have to be content and fed up with the rather crap programming the sabc forces upon us.

LOL - so a Hooker has to be gratefull 'cos there is a pimp looking after her interests.

I dont use DSTV equipment, I have sacrificed the fancy interactive channels just so that I can have the peace of mind that DSTV *cant* tamper with my decoder... I hate it when dstv keep changing the rules and try to firmware update MY decoder

Sorry... I cant be grateful for that.

 

[ic]

Icasa is expected to impose an open-access model for all decoders, so consumers will not require multiple decoders to subscribe to all five pay TV providers and new players will save costs on designing their own decoders.

either this is totally incorrect, or new decoders will have to be fitted with 5 SIM Card slots...

As much as I dislike the monopoly position that MonoChoice has, and likely will continue to have until at least halfway through 2008, I don't see why MonoChoice should be forced to share its own decoder with competitors, besides what sane consumer would want to pay out loads of money each month to subscribe to all 5 PayTV services - the notion also defeats forcing operators to compete with one another.

 

[ejbengine]

Or perhaps use the Wiztec decoder that cost only R350?

 

[Tns]

hopefully they will be forced to share, icasa might actually do this since multinonsense isn't part gov owned.... now if prices would just come down a bit.


ps. Richard what decoder you have then? would love to get one thats is pvr capable.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

either this is totally incorrect, or new decoders will have to be fitted with 5 SIM Card slots...

As much as I dislike the monopoly position that MonoChoice has, and likely will continue to have until at least halfway through 2008, I don't see why MonoChoice should be forced to share its own decoder with competitors, besides what sane consumer would want to pay out loads of money each month to subscribe to all 5 PayTV services - the notion also defeats forcing operators to compete with one another.

I would agree if Multichoice handed out the decoders free of charge, however customers are usually required to pay an upfront fee for it.

The real question is whether the amount we pay is the full price of the decoder, or whether Multichoice subsidises the balance if it costs more. If they subsidise the balance, then they should be entitled to certain rights for eg. being allowed to lock the decoder for a period of up to 12 months in order for them to recoup costs via subscription fees.

After all, it's not manufactured by them so why should they set the rules for an item that the customer eventually pays the full amount for?

 

[krycor]

i hope its forced, competition is more likely as well as price drops. if its not, then i doubt the price will come down and of cause we gonna have a few 'illegal' unblocking services popping up

 

[Biggie]

Where can i get that WIZTEC decoder?

 

[ic]

I would agree if Multichoice handed out the decoders free of charge, however customers are usually required to pay an upfront fee for it.

The real question is whether the amount we pay is the full price of the decoder, or whether Multichoice subsidises the balance if it costs more. If they subsidise the balance, then they should be entitled to certain rights for eg. being allowed to lock the decoder for a period of up to 12 months in order for them to recoup costs via subscription fees.

After all, it's not manufactured by them so why should they set the rules for an item that the customer eventually pays the full amount for?

Most of my previous post was about what I interpreted as an ambiguous paragraph in the article, which IMO [incorrectly] suggested that !CASA was going to stipulate that consumers could use a single decoder|STB simultaneously for all 5 PayTV services - I'm sure that was an unintentional mistake by the author of the article.

I don't disagree with the sentiment of having interoperable satellite TV decoders|STBs, it sounds like a great idea, but is it feasible in SA with the current DSTV decoders, how interoperable are they in reality [assuming one loads alternative software]? - maybe Altech|UEC designed them to be interoperable - it would make sense for Altech|UEC to achieve economies of scale with multiple competing satellite PayTV operators all able to use the same physical decoder|STB with operator-specific s/w loaded. But, MonoChoice and Altech|UEC no doubt have an exclusivity contract, whereby MonoChoice has exercised some influence to prevent former customers from being able to easily switch to a future competitor's satellite PayTV service.

The other problem I can see with this, is that Altech|UEC is currently also in a monopoly position - at least for DSTV decoders, and !CASA needs to ensure that there is sufficient incentive for the introduction of competing manufacturers of decoders|STBs - even if it means cheap imports from China, stipulating interoperability between PayTV services might not achieve this goal.

 

[Roman4604]

I think the area where Multichoice would take issue about opening up their STBs to unrestricted access would be on the software not hardware side.

For instance, the PVR's OS supposedly consists of 3 mil lines of source code. While much of it is the base functional subroutines supplied by OpenTV, a lot of it is custom developed code done by Multichoice as the 'raw' OpenTV OS is more of an SDK than a polished ready to use system.

Multichoice have probably incurred quite substantial software development and maintanance cost, so just allowing others to gain access for free would probably not sit well with them.

 

[Franna]

So the newly wed smartcard is heading for a divorce...

 

[ajax]

Even if ICASA forces Monochoice to open its decoders, they will just pull a Telkom - Telkom was able to differentiate between local and international traffic on ADSL before Nov. 2005. That changed in Nov 2005 with the "new billing policy". When the ADSL regulations came out at the end of 2006 stipulating they had to differentiate between local and international and uncap local, Telkom just insisted that their system couldn't differentiate and effectively gave the middle finger to the law. So Telkom effectively milks(ed) us for a further year till, hopefully, Nov 2007, when local will be "uncapped" or however they will twist the interpretations of the very hazy, unclear ADSL regulations.

Monochoice will play the same game, say "their decoders can not handle other smart cards", delay things with stretched out court battles, whatever it takes. Spending a couple of million on lawyers is nothing compared to maintaining a dominant position in the market and hauling in the ca$h.

 

[andres101]

If they sold their PVR at a discount, then they have been competing unfairly for years by not allowing other PVR manufacturers to get a footing in SA.

I'm sure that some of the guru's in SA will be able to crack the DSTV decoder.

 

[ejbengine]

Where can i get that WIZTEC decoder?

PM