Openview recently increased its hardware pricing from R1,499 to R1,699 for a complete installation, while DStv’s decoder, dish, and installation bundle has remained at R499.<\/p>\n
However, once the installation is complete, Openview customers pay no additional fees, while DStv’s EasyView package has a monthly subscription of R29.<\/p>\n
Therefore, Openview customers will make up the R1,200 difference in just under three and a half years.<\/p>\n
In May 2022, the eMedia-owned Openview announced it would add The Home Channel + to its catalogue<\/a><\/strong>, bringing its documentary and lifestyle channel offerings to two \u2014 one more than what’s available on DStv’s EasyView package.<\/p>\n A month earlier, it added the Afrikaans-dubbed Turkish telenovela channel ePlesier<\/a><\/strong>, giving it a further advantage over DStv EasyView’s movies and entertainment category, which only features TNT Africa and Real Time.<\/p>\n ePlesier brought Openview’s movies and entertainment catalogue back to seven channels after it dropped eRewind<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n DStv has been on a channel cutting spree in 2022, dropping eight and only adding two. On the other hand, Openview has added three channels while dropping two over the same period.<\/p>\n The MultiChoice-owned DStv dropped four eMedia channels on 1 July<\/a><\/strong>, iTV in June, LifeTime in May, and Russia Today in March. It plans to cut FliekNET on 15 July.<\/p>\n eMedia contested DStv’s decision to cut four of its channels at the Competition Tribunal in April<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n MultiChoice had renewed its channel supply agreement for E-tv and eNCA, but refused to include eExtra, eMovies, eMovies Extra, and eToonz.<\/p>\n eMedia claimed DStv’s decision was in contravention of Section 8 of the Competition Act, adding that it would lose as much as 19% of its advertising revenue should MultiChoice be allowed to proceed with the cuts.<\/p>\n However, the Competition Tribunal ruled against eMedia’s plea to keep its channels on DStv.<\/p>\n DStv’s EasyView package still trumps Openview’s channel list regarding free-to-air channels and news programming. It features 11 free channels and seven news and commerce channels.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Openview has four free-to-air channels \u2014 SABC 1, 2, 3, and E-tv \u2014 and only one news and commerce channel.<\/p>\n Regarding programming aimed at kids and teens, Openview’s catalogue beats DStv EasyView’s by one channel. This is primarily due to DStv dropping eMedia’s four channels, including eToonz, on 1 July 2022.<\/p>\n Both packages offer the Mindset channel.<\/p>\n A comparison of Openview’s and DStv EasyView’s pricing and content is provided in the table below.<\/p>\n