MultiChoice will increase the price of many of its DStv packages on 1 April 2014, which means that the price of a DStv Premium service is now basically the same as a 4Mbps uncapped ADSL service.
The price of a DStv Premium service will increase from the current R625 per month to R665 per month on 1 April 2014.
The inverse is happening in the ADSL market. Over the last decade the price of ADSL plummeted, especially in the uncapped market.
A 4Mbps uncapped ADSL service – which includes ADSL access, an uncapped account and analogue line rental – costs less than R700 per month.
The following graph shows the changes in the price of DStv’s Premium service and a 4Mbps uncapped ADSL service.
Why are uncapped ADSL vs DStv prices relevant?
MultiChoice’s DStv service has a dominant position in South Africa’s pay-TV market – and for good reasons.
DStv offers virtually all premium sporting events live, and has a large range of entertainment, news, music and educational channels. It is, in short, unrivalled in SA.
TopTV, now known as StarSat, has failed to compete effectively against MultiChoice. New free-to-air players are also unlikely to wrestle subscribers away from DStv.
DStv’s biggest future competition may come from the Internet. Tech-savvy Internet users are already turning to online services for their entertainment needs.
With a fast broadband connection consumers have access to a wide range of content – online radio, movies, TV series, video clips, social networking, adult content, news and more.
Many Internet users with flexible morals are downloading movies, TV series and other content using BitTorrent or news servers before the content reaches South Africa through DStv.
Although not legal in South Africa, the number of Netflix subscribers are also growing in the country.
To ensure that it does not fall behind, MultiChoice is also bolstering its own video-on-demand and streaming services.
Live streaming of sporting events through Supersport, BoxOffice movie rentals, DStv On Demand and DStv Catch Up offer subscribers legal options to keep themselves entertained.
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