Multichoice - Price Fixing?

Sackboy said:
Of course you can recommend a price. You didn't read my post.
If you try and force a retailer to stick to it, it becomes illegal.
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I read all your posts and I still don't understand your point. The below conversation refers:

Quantum Theory said:
They have a recommended retail price. They distribute the decoders and regulate the price. If you get it for less, it's good. If you pay more, you are being ripped off. Nobody that sells decoders really makes a profit from it. They make their profit from the dishes and accessories. Price fixing is when different suppliers of similar products agree in secret to keep the prices at a certain level.
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Sackboy said:
This is also price fixing.
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Sackboy said:
If the company turns up on the doorstep of a shop and tells them they selling THEIR product too cheap, and there will be consequences and possibly no more deliveries - now that is also price fixing.
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isie said:
and which company did MC tell they selling the HD PVR too cheap?
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Guys, If you can't follow a simple conversation I'm really not up to speaking special English today so the slower members can keep up. Sorry..
 
Sackboy is claiming that Multichoice are price fixing by punishing retailers that sell too cheaply. He hasn't offered any example or proof that this is the case, and thus we're lacking comprehension??
 
arf9999 said:
Sackboy is claiming that Multichoice WOULD BE price fixing IF IT WERE FOUND TO BE punishing retailers that sell too cheaply. He WOULD offer examples or proof IF THIS WERE DISCOVERED - sorry if we were we're lacking comprehension??
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Fixed for the slower members.
 
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It's not really a monopoly on decoders as you can use a dreambox or dvb-s tv card and a dstv smartcard and view it just fine.

Why charge 3k for a pvr? Why not give them away free like the cellular operators? A R500 sub should easily be able to pay for a pvr. You get 3k phones on topup/weekender type contracts. The cellular operator actually has to router your calls etc, dstv doesn't have to incur more cost to broadcast "more" signal does it? That R500 minus some admin is basically profit after enough subscribers to cover their cost. They could even make more money from ads with more subscribers.
 
rorz0r said:
It's not really a monopoly on decoders as you can use a dreambox or dvb-s tv card and a dstv smartcard and view it just fine.

Why charge 3k for a pvr? Why not give them away free like the cellular operators? A R500 sub should easily be able to pay for a pvr. You get 3k phones on topup/weekender type contracts. The cellular operator actually has to router your calls etc, dstv doesn't have to incur more cost to broadcast "more" signal does it? That R500 minus some admin is basically profit after enough subscribers to cover their cost. They could even make more money from ads with more subscribers.
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MC have gone out of their way to try and block 3rd party decoders and enforce their monopoly. The EPG, for example, was designed to be non-standard, and difficult to load on other sets. The marriage of the smartcard to the box was another attempt, as were the frequent upgrades to the encryption on the cards.
 
rorz0r said:
Why charge 3k for a pvr? Why not give them away free like the cellular operators? A R500 sub should easily be able to pay for a pvr. You get 3k phones on topup/weekender type contracts. The cellular operator actually has to router your calls etc, dstv doesn't have to incur more cost to broadcast "more" signal does it? That R500 minus some admin is basically profit after enough subscribers to cover their cost. They could even make more money from ads with more subscribers.
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No. It pays for satellite space, production of programming, rights to series/movies/sports etc. If they had 10 000 000+ subscribers, like in Germany, UK or USA, then it might have been possible. You obviously don't have a clue.
 
rorz0r said:
It's not really a monopoly on decoders as you can use a dreambox or dvb-s tv card and a dstv smartcard and view it just fine.

Why charge 3k for a pvr? Why not give them away free like the cellular operators? A R500 sub should easily be able to pay for a pvr. You get 3k phones on topup/weekender type contracts. The cellular operator actually has to router your calls etc, dstv doesn't have to incur more cost to broadcast "more" signal does it? That R500 minus some admin is basically profit after enough subscribers to cover their cost. They could even make more money from ads with more subscribers.
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with dstv's"anti piracy' stance they maried the decoder to smard cards so dreambox etc will only work for a month or 2 then be blocked, as for your other ide since they are the only provider theree is no need for them to offer anything for free since they have a manopoly no need for them to get us to sign a 24 month contract as no competition for them to deal with

Sackboy said:
MC have gone out of their way to try and block 3rd party decoders and enforce their monopoly. The EPG, for example, was designed to be non-standard, and difficult to load on other sets. The marriage of the smartcard to the box was another attempt, as were the frequent upgrades to the encryption on the cards.
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that i agree with you on,
 
Quantum Theory said:
No. It pays for satellite space, production of programming, rights to series/movies/sports etc. If they had 10 000 000+ subscribers, like in Germany, UK or USA, then it might have been possible. You obviously don't have a clue.
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Rights to sports and "production of programming" are linked to how many subscribers you have? Guess I don't have a clue. I bow down to your superior knowledge because you know more than DSTV about me. I was not aware that there was a shortage of space in space.
 
rorz0r said:
It's not really a monopoly on decoders as you can use a dreambox or dvb-s tv card and a dstv smartcard and view it just fine.

Why charge 3k for a pvr? Why not give them away free like the cellular operators? A R500 sub should easily be able to pay for a pvr. You get 3k phones on topup/weekender type contracts. The cellular operator actually has to router your calls etc, dstv doesn't have to incur more cost to broadcast "more" signal does it? That R500 minus some admin is basically profit after enough subscribers to cover their cost. They could even make more money from ads with more subscribers.
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As mentioned earlier, there isn't a viable alternative to the MC decoder.

One point that you're missing is that MC's largest cost is not technology, but the content itself. All Pay TV operators pay a licence for content based on the number of subscribers, thus more subscribers = increase in costs. So, while there is a definite advantage in more subscribers to amotise the bandwidth and hardware costs, there is an additional variable cost for each addditional subscriber.
 
rorz0r said:
Rights to sports and "production of programming" are linked to how many subscribers you have? Guess I don't have a clue. I bow down to your superior knowledge because you know more than DSTV about me. I was not aware that there was a shortage of space in space.
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Satellites are expensive. To buy broadcasting space on them is expensive too. It also cost the same if you have one subscriber or 20 000 000. You do the sums...
 
rorz0r said:
Rights to sports and "production of programming" are linked to how many subscribers you have? Guess I don't have a clue. I bow down to your superior knowledge because you know more than DSTV about me. I was not aware that there was a shortage of space in space.
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There's no shortage of space in space, but that doesn't help to bounce a signal back to earth. There is a limited amount of bandwidth available on the satellite transponders, and that space is rented out by the satellite owners e.g.IntelSat. (sp?)

Oh, and rights are based on the number of subscribers (which is a very fair system in that it allows smaller PayTV operations to start up).
 
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