The number of streaming services South Africans can subscribe to has grown substantially since Netflix officially landed in the country in 2016.<\/p>\n
In 2021, the BBC and IPTV\u2019s BritBox service made its debut in South Africa, bringing a host of British content with it, some of which has been missing from DStv since it shut down some UK-based channels.<\/p>\n
Disney+ is the next to arrive in the country<\/a><\/strong> on 18 May, with a plethora of content from its vast and popular catalogue of movies and TV shows expected to be available.<\/p>\n It will join Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, BritBox, and AcornTV in South Africa.<\/p>\n But DStv is also facing an onslaught on the local front, with various South African streaming services coming online.<\/p>\n E-tv launched its video streaming service eVOD<\/a><\/strong> in August 2021. TelkomONE preceded it, rolling out in November 2020.<\/p>\n The SABC also plans to launch its video streaming service in the second quarter of 2022.<\/p>\n Smaller parties have also launched their own offerings.<\/p>\n These include the likes of civil action group AfriForum, which recently launched AfriForumTV<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 an alternative for Afrikaans-speaking viewers to MultiChoice’s offerings like Showmax, and the kykNET and Via channels on DStv.<\/p>\n DStv Streama<\/p><\/div>\n DStv has one big advantage \u2014 video streaming services require an Internet connection.<\/p>\n However, the cost of fixed broadband in South Africa has dropped radically. You can get uncapped fibre capable of streaming 4K video and a subscription to several streaming services for less than DStv Premium.<\/p>\n The price of mobile data may also soon become cheap enough for video streaming following Icasa’s recent spectrum auction<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Households also typically have an Internet connection for more than video streaming.<\/p>\n Asked about this, MultiChoice remained adamant that DStv was the “most cost-effective means of family entertainment and presents the most video entertainment value”.<\/p>\n However, its approach to offering streaming services leaves much to be desired.<\/p>\n In a heavily criticised move earlier this year, DStv reduced concurrent streams<\/a><\/strong> to one, even on streaming-only packages.<\/p>\n This decision sparked calls for a boycott on social media.<\/p>\n It is also challenging to measure Showmax’s success as MultiChoice doesn’t publish subscriber numbers for the service.<\/p>\n Although Showmax offers some of the world’s most popular content thanks to MultiChoice’s licencing deal with HBO, there are indications that things might not be going the way they hoped.<\/p>\n Showmax has repeatedly offered promotions that include two-for-one subscription deals.<\/p>\n DStv’s streaming services and Showmax have their streaming quality capped at 720p, while Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video all have 4K available.<\/p>\n DStv could also be growing concerned about one area where it has been dominant for years \u2014 sports broadcasting.<\/p>\n Big international players have shifted their gaze towards this potentially lucrative revenue stream for advertising.<\/p>\n Sporting federations are gradually disintermediating broadcasters. Formula 1<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0Premier League football clubs, and even FIFA<\/a><\/strong> offer dedicated streaming apps for fans.<\/p>\n Amazon and Disney+ have thrown their hats into the ring for the right to stream Indian Premier League cricket between 2023 and 2027.<\/p>\n Multinationals like Amazon, Apple, Disney, and Netflix have much more cash to offer for the rights to this content, and they have recognised the opportunity.<\/p>\n YouTube recently won the exclusive rights to stream 15 major league baseball games in 182 countries.<\/p>\n Apple TV+ has been streaming Friday Night Baseball in 2022 and is reportedly close to sealing a deal for the National Football League\u2019s Sunday Ticket rights from 2023.<\/p>\n Should these companies begin to turn to smaller regions like South Africa as a ripe market for advertising revenue on globally popular sports like soccer, rugby, and cricket, MultiChoice could find itself priced out of the rights auctions.<\/p>\n MultiChoice did not acknowledge the threat when asked about this. Instead, it told MyBroadband that SuperSport would remain a long-term supporter of local sport \u2014 as an investor and a broadcaster.<\/p>\n MultiChoice previously expressed big plans to become an entertainment super-aggregator, effectively offering a one-stop shop for various streaming services alongside DStv.<\/p>\n It has had some success on this front with the Explora Ultra decoder, which offers Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube on top of DStv and Showmax.<\/p>\n However, with the third-party apps also being available on a myriad other smart TV and mobile platforms, it is difficult to see the benefit of getting an Ultra decoder unless DStv somehow bundles these subscriptions with its own at a discount.<\/p>\n In this regard, it has failed, while rivals like France-based Canal+ have succeeded.<\/p>\n Here there may be some hope, as there are murmurings that Canal+ may be looking to acquire MultiChoice<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n MultiChoice has also kept eerily quiet on progress regarding its DStv Streama, which it announced more than 19 months ago<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Asked about the Streama, MultiChoice said it would announce information about the launch later.<\/p>\n The Streama is a compact media box that would have to go toe-to-toe with Apple TV and the slew of Android TV media boxes already on the market.<\/p>\n For the more technically inclined, media platform developer Plex has also started offering aggregating services in its apps \u2014 and made it available for free.<\/p>\n With consumers getting more comfortable with an array of existing options on the market, and more TVs offering operating systems with built-in app support, time is running out for MultiChoice to pivot.<\/p>\n As more content owners like Disney launch their own streaming services globally, DStv’s existence is under threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":440142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[39088,2638,68666,12857,85,35,475,2054,32140,62312],"class_list":["post-441682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-amazon-prime-video","tag-apple-tv","tag-britbox","tag-disney","tag-dstv","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-netflix","tag-showmax","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441682"}],"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=441682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441694,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441682\/revisions\/441694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/DStv-Streama.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/DStv-Netflix-Hulu-YouTube-Amazon-Prime-Video.jpg\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nOne-stop shop? Not so much<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Now read: Disney+ pre-registrations launch in South Africa \u2014\u00a0with special pricing<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"