DStv Mobile to get competitor
MultiChoice recently announced that DStv Mobile has launched a streaming Mobile TV service on Vodafone live!, the multimedia portal of Vodacom. Subscribers are able to view 11 channels and a wide range of on-demand video clips for an all-inclusive subscription of R59 per month or R19 per week.
“The cellphone is fast becoming a central platform for media consumption and the new DStv MOBILE service gives Vodacom customers the freedom to access their favourite DStv content anywhere, anytime,” said Mark Rayner, GM DStv MOBILE SA.
The mobile DStv channels are SuperSport Blitz, SuperSport Live, Channel O, Trace, CNNi, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Africa Magic, E Entertainment, Weather 24 and DStv Events. Subscribers also have access to a top selection of videos to watch from popular DStv channels such as M-Net, kykNET and VUZU. This video-on-demand offering is also flat rated in terms of data usage.
In a surprising move it has emerged that Vodacom is set to announce a new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service which will compete directly with DStv Mobile. The new service is an on-demand service with a DVD-like viewing control where you can play, pause and resume whenever you want.
Vodacom has partnered with the London based On Demand Group (ODG), specialists in on-demand & pay-per-view content, to bring Vodacom subscribers a variety of video material like TV series and movies.
According to ODG the service will have Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Entourage, South Park, Spongebob Squarepants, Pimp My Ride, Avatar, Dora the Explorer, Andromeda, Mutant X, The Collector, Relic Hunter and hundreds of music videos.
At a live demonstration of the service only the first, or first few seasons were available of some of the above series, but ODG aims to add over 550 hours of new content during the first year of operation.
There were also no movies available during the live demo, but On Demand said that movies will become available in time, but couldn’t provide a specific schedule by the time of publication.
As with MultiChoice’s service, the SVOD service will be governed by a Fair Use Policy (FUP) but users’ consumption won’t be hard-limited. According to On Demand, the FUP will be based on overall network usage rather than individual caps, similar to the soft-capping employed by Telkom in the past.
The exact wording provided in the release was: “If, in On Demand Group’s reasonable opinion, your use is excessive, we may ask you to moderate your usage. If after we have informed you to moderate your usage, you fail to do so, we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at your price plan’s standard rate, or suspend or terminate your service in accordance with your airtime contract.”
When asked to clarify what would constitute excessive usage, On Demand said that it’s an internal figure where they look at average usage across the whole user base. “If the average exceeds our own business model it’s a good problem to have,” they said.
Wide screen videos are set to stream at 320×176 resolutions using either MPEG4 or H.264 codecs. According to On Demand, Standard (4:3) videos will be available at QCIF(176×144) and QVGA (320×240) resolutions using MPEG4 and H.264 encoding respectively. Videos will all stream at 15 frames per second.
On Demand said that they currently support Vodacom’s top 100 3G handsets. According to ODG this accounts for 95% of the 3G market. iPhone is not supported, but on the roadmap, said On Demand.
The service is set to launch via Vodafone live! on Monday, 1 August at R75 per month or R20 per week.
The deal with Vodacom is non-exclusive, stated ODG. They went on to say that it’s a “real possibility” that other networks might launch on demand services through ODG in future.
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