The DStv Now standalone streaming service is set to launch before the end of March 2020, according to MultiChoice.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice South Africa CEO Calvo Mawela first announced in May 2018 that the company was planning to offer an online-only service which does not require a satellite dish and decoder.<\/p>\n
Early indications were that the service would be ready by the end of 2019. However, this was later postponed to the end of MultiChoice’s 2019\/2020 financial year.<\/p>\n
In November 2019, MultiChoice Connected Video CEO Niclas Ekdahl confirmed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the company planned to have the standalone DStv Now service ready by the end of March 2020.<\/p>\n “I think the stuff that we\u2019ve done on DStv Now in the past 12 months is actually bringing us much closer to saying that \u2018Yeah, this is a service where I can stand behind\u2019, and say that this is going to be delivering a seamless user journey for our consumers,” Ekdahl said.<\/p>\n At the time, he noted the service still had to undergo field trials to ensure that it was ready for a seamless rollout.<\/p>\n With less than a month to go, MyBroadband reached out to MultiChoice for comment on whether the launch was still due to happen in March – but the company was unable to confirm further progress on the service.<\/p>\n However, DStv announced<\/strong><\/a> this week that it would open its Premium channels to subscribers on EasyView, Access, Family, Compact, and Compact Plus packages via DStv Now for the weekend of 14-15 March.<\/p>\n It is possible that this open weekend could be one of the field tests Ekdahl previously referred to.<\/p>\n The test could be used to measure the platform’s readiness under increased demand before the company launches the service.<\/p>\n Given the fact that DStv Now previously suffered streaming problems<\/a><\/strong> during periods of heavy demand, it would help to ensure the service is capable of handling a large number of users.<\/p>\n MyBroadband has spoken to several media analysts about how they expect the DStv Now standalone streaming service to be priced, and the feedback has been interesting.<\/p>\n Africa Analysis media analyst Nozi Dikgale said MultiChoice would be able to cut operational costs on the manufacturing and installation of decoders and satellite dishes.<\/p>\n \u201cMultiChoice subsidizes the decoder, therefore introducing an online service would lower the cost of acquiring a new subscriber, introduce a marginal saving on the MultiChoice Group’s income statement, and lower the cost for the new subscriber,\u201d Dikgale said.<\/p>\n This could put the company in a position to offer more affordable pricing for a standalone DStv Now service – even around the same price as a Showmax subscription.<\/p>\n \u201cI would expect the service to be cheaper than Showmax or perhaps even be the same price,” Dikgale said.<\/p>\n Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird said he thinks the price of a standalone DStv Now service will be comparable to a Netflix package.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can be sure that they have done their homework and are likely to hit the ground with a competitive offer,\u201d Bird said.<\/p>\n Netflix’s subscription options in South Africa range from R99 to R169 per month, all of which offer access to Netflix’s full content library.<\/p>\n Currently, DStv’s most affordable package – that does not primarily feature free-to-air television – is Access. It will cost R110 per month from 1 April 2020.<\/p>\n DStv holds one definitive advantage over Netflix and other streaming platforms currently: its rights to live sports broadcasting.<\/p>\n Many users have not cancelled their DStv Premium subscriptions because there are few or no alternatives to legally watch sports<\/a><\/strong> like rugby, cricket, and football.<\/p>\n Bird said that although the base pricing of the standalone DStv Now service could compete with Netflix, sports packages would possibly be offered as an add-on.<\/p>\n Dikgale echoed this prediction and added that DStv could opt for advertising on content like sport.<\/p>\n “MultiChoice could introduce a transactional business model for pay-per-view on certain content such as sports or an AVOD (advertising video on demand) business model,” Dikgale said.<\/p>\n The DStv Now standalone streaming service is set to launch before the end of March 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":272045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85,27627,35,475,2054],"class_list":["post-342005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv","tag-dstv-now","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342005"}],"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\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342233,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342005\/revisions\/342233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Testing hints at imminent launch<\/h3>\n
Pricing expectations<\/h3>\n
Sport could be an add-on<\/h3>\n
Now read: MultiChoice threatened companies with DStv exclusion to get their way \u2013 Former Minister<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"