DStv vs. TopTV: one year on

In May 2010, On Digital Media (ODM) brought competition to the South African pay-TV market with its TopTV offering.

TopTV launched with seven different packages, with pricing and channel bundle options ranging from R99 to R249 per month. A TopTV decoder, satellite dish and installation cost R499 at the time. In comparison, a DStv decoder, satellite dish and installation cost about R1,100. The DStv Compact bouquet offering 44 channels was priced at R232 a month.

MultiChoice was quick to react, and launched their DStv Lite service, priced at R99 per month, one day before TopTV hits the shelves. DStv Lite comprised of 25 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels.

MultiChoice also launched a decoder, dish and installation bundle promotion for R649 in response to TopTV’s offering.

Current situation

In January 2011, ODM announced that it had signed up over 200,000 TopTV subscribers since their launch. Clearly this was not enough to cause MultiChoice concern about raising their prices in April 2011.

MultiChoice increased the price of its DStv Premium service from R529.00 to R559.00, its DStv Compact bouquet from R232 to R246 and its DStv Select bundle from R148 to R157. The rates for DStv Lite (R99), PVR access (R65.00) and DStv Mobile (R36.00) remained unchanged.

It should be noted that DStv subscribers have benefitted from numerous new channels introduced over the last year, including a few new HD channels.

Both TopTV and DStv decoder bundles have dropped in price, and it is currently possible to buy a TopTV decoder, dish and installation for as low as R259 from Makro. The same DStv bundle costs R599 from Makro.

MultiChoice’s HD and Mobile advantage

Apart from brining more channels to consumers, MultiChoice also innovated by brining mobile television to the local market at R36 per month.

MultiChoice further launched a more affordable HD PVR decoder, and with a growing number of high definition (HD) channels it is unlikely that high-end subscribers will migrate to TopTV, which has no PVR solution, no HD channels and very limited sports coverage.

Head to head

The following table provides an overview of how DStv and TopTV compares on price and bouquet offerings.

DStv vs TopTV: one year on << Comments and views

Don't miss the latest news

• Add MyBroadband as a preferred source in Google Search
• Follow MyBroadband on Google News