{"id":296132,"date":"2019-02-19T07:54:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T05:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=296132"},"modified":"2019-02-19T07:56:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T05:56:26","slug":"how-dstv-was-started-in-a-caravan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/296132-how-dstv-was-started-in-a-caravan.html","title":{"rendered":"How DStv was started in a caravan"},"content":{"rendered":"

DStv is a continent-wide phenomenon, with its owner MultiChoice delivering satellite broadcast TV and online entertainment to million of viewers.<\/p>\n

When the company began its journey however, things were very different.<\/p>\n

M-Net – an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network – was founded in South Africa by Naspers in 1986, and at the time it was one of only two pay TV operators outside of the United States.<\/p>\n

Since then, the business has grown to encompass a range of products from M-Net and DStv to Showmax and SuperSport.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice’s head office in Randburg, Johannesburg has a museum commemorating the evolution of the company and it was kind enough to invite MyBroadband on a tour of the facility.<\/p>\n

The museum offers unique insights into the obstacles and successes the broadcasting company has encountered throughout its lifetime.<\/p>\n

From caravan to corporation<\/h3>\n

When M-Net began, some of its operations were conducted out of a caravan before it moved to its first office in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

At the time, M-Net was broadcasting for 12 hours a day to around 500 households who had decoders – with its first broadcast the 1986 Currie Cup final between the Transvaal and Western Province.<\/p>\n

The first advert to run on M-Net was a “Quest for Zero Defect” ad by Panasonic, which ironically was broadcast with no sound due to a technical glitch.<\/p>\n

In addition to its regular broadcast to paid subscribers, M-Net also had an “Open Time” slot from 18:00 and 19:00. This free-to-air time slot was implemented to attract new subscribers.<\/p>\n

In 1989, M-Net Supersport was launched and began broadcasting on M-Net’s spare channel, eventually going on to becoming South Africa’s first dedicated sports channel.<\/p>\n

M-Net also became the first television company to list on the JSE in 1992. Popular shows on the network at this time included Carte Blanche and Egoli.<\/p>\n

M-Net SuperSport then changed its name to SuperSport in 1994, and its sports coverage expanded to international cricket, rugby, the US Masters, MotoGP, Wimbledon tennis, and the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Evolution<\/h3>\n

Following the channels’ growth, MultiChoice was officially launched in 1995 as a subscriber management service for M-Net – and in the same year DStv was launched with a bouquet of 17 channels.<\/p>\n

The original DStv Pace 500 decoder was launched at this time, and its offering was expanded by the first Dual View decoder in 2003.<\/p>\n

The decoders sold to subscribers began to evolve too, with older hardware phased out in favour of newer devices with more features.<\/p>\n

Old decoder models are displayed at MultiChoice’s museum, including the original Grinel and Delta 9000 decoders used by M-Net customers before the launch of DStv.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice also appears to have a soft spot for commemorative editions of decoders.<\/p>\n

Locked away in its museum are a World Cup 2010 decoder to celebrate the South African-hosted Soccer World Cup and a 24-carat gold-plated Delta 9000 decoder to celebrate 1 million models sold.<\/p>\n

Going strong<\/h3>\n

All these years later, DStv continues to dominate pay-TV in Africa and boasted a total of 13.5 million subscribers across Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2018 – with 7 million of these subscribers in South Africa.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice has also launched online platforms such as Showmax and DStv Now to compete with other major VOD providers like Netflix.<\/p>\n

Additionally, MultiChoice Group is set to begin trading as its own entity on the JSE on 27 February 2019, comprising MultiChoice South Africa, MultiChoice Africa, and Showmax.<\/p>\n

M-Net and DStv Decoders<\/h3>\n

Photos of the DStv and M-Net decoders which are on display at the MultiChoice museum are posted below.<\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Decoders<\/a><\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0DStv prices in South Africa \u2013 2000 to 2019<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When M-Net began, some of its operations were conducted out of a caravan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":135038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[47954,85,35,5016,475],"class_list":["post-296132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-broadcast","tag-dstv","tag-headline","tag-m-net","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296238,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296132\/revisions\/296238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}