{"id":606058,"date":"2025-08-10T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=606058"},"modified":"2025-08-10T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:46:57","slug":"dstv-under-siege-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/606058-dstv-under-siege-3.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv under siege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DStv is under siege from an old nemesis \u2014 piracy. However, the battlefield has changed. A decade ago, it fought BitTorrent and Usenet downloads; today, the threat comes from pirate streaming platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this problem, MultiChoice is investing millions in combating copyright infringement in South Africa and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DStv has been the dominant pay-TV operator in South Africa for three decades. It was launched in 1995 and was the first direct-to-home digital pay-TV service outside the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the collapse of the SABC, DStv became a must-have for households that could afford it. By 2006, MultiChoice South Africa had 1.5 million subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, MultiChoice has 14.5 million DStv subscribers \u2014 7.0 million in South Africa and 7.5 million in the rest of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of its main assets is SuperSport, a global leader in sports broadcasting. It offers DStv subscribers access to all prominent local and international sporting events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice chairman Elias Masilela said that although technology brought great benefits to their industry, it has also enabled broadcasting piracy to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA rise in illegal streaming services and pirated content is eroding global industry revenues by an estimated 25% to 35% annually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis not only undermines the income of companies like ours but also erodes the livelihoods of those involved in the creative industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that it negatively impacts economies by depriving countries of tax revenues and investment in the video entertainment industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTogether with broadcasters around the world, we are intensifying our efforts to combat this global scourge,\u201d Masilela said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice and its cybersecurity subsidiary, Irdeto, are at the forefront of the fight against content piracy across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It utilises advanced anti-piracy tools, strategic partnerships with law enforcement and government agencies, and public awareness campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, MultiChoice, Irdeto, and South African law enforcement agencies conducted 10 major anti-piracy raids, including the shutdown of Waka TV, a large illegal streaming operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A powerful new alliance was also formed between Irdeto\u2019s Anti-Piracy Unit and the Western Cape Provincial Commercial Crime Unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rise of online piracy due to fragmented content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Elias Masilela, MultiChoice Group chairman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Broadcasting piracy is not the only challenge DStv faces. Traditional online piracy for movies and TV series is making a comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of Netflix, which offers an excellent streaming experience, initially saw many people move away from online piracy as Netflix solved their problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the fragmentation of content across multiple streaming platforms caused many people to return to online piracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online video-on-demand content was centralised through Netflix. However, today, it is spread across platforms like Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Showmax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To access the latest TV series and movies, consumers must subscribe to multiple services, which can be costly and inconvenient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online piracy platforms have all TV series and movies in one place, and using a service like Plex makes it easy and convenient to watch this content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, many tech-savvy users opt for online piracy over pay-TV services like DStv and streaming platforms like Netflix and Showmax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axxess, one of South Africa\u2019s largest Internet service providers, has reported a 20% increase in torrent activity<\/a> in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a complex problem to overcome, as tracking, charging, and prosecuting individual users is impractical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice takes fight global<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Frikkie Jonker, Irdeto director of broadcast cybersecurity and anti-piracy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice has shifted its anti-piracy fight from smaller resellers of IPTV services that provide illegal access to DStv content to the upstream providers in foreign countries that manage these services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By blocking accounts linked to these operators during high-profile events, such as live sports broadcasts, MultiChoice hopes to discourage people from using illegal services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its most recent half-year results, the company reported that it had initiated 233 anti-piracy court cases, compared to 111 over the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figure for the second half of the year was not included in the company\u2019s full-year results, which were published earlier in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband followed up with the broadcaster to learn more about progress in its piracy crackdown. MultiChoice acknowledged a decline in anti-piracy court cases in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it said this did not reflect reduced enforcement. Instead, it was shifting its strategy towards more targeted and efficient interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have concentrated our resources on fewer higher-impact cases rather than volume, focusing on upstream targets which has a bigger impact on users of illegal piracy sites and apps,\u201d MultiChoice said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur monitoring and anti-piracy toolsets have evolved significantly in the past 12 months, allowing us to more easily identify and block our platform from being utilised in streaming piracy operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice stated that while many suspects were involved in selling and distributing piracy apps in South Africa, these were commonly resellers of global pirate platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said its teams identified accounts used to resell streams and deployed countermeasures to block them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice stated that this practice undermines the credibility and reliability of piracy apps for users, particularly during major sporting events. This appears to be working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband has recently observed increased complaints on a major community Facebook group about the performance of a notorious IPTV service that illegally streams DStv channels \u2014 Waka TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several users reported that the service\u2019s on-demand offering remained reliable, but DStv channels had been frequently stuttering or were completely non-responsive in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that the issues were specific to DStv channels, rather than the platform itself, could suggest they were due to MultiChoice\u2019s interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One user reported that Waka TV\u2019s support line stated DStv was \u201csabotaging\u201d the service. Searches for \u201cWaka TV\u201d on Facebook and X also revealed numerous complaints about DStv channel performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A version of this article was first published on Newsday<\/a> and is reproduced with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DStv is under siege from an old nemesis. However, the battlefield has changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":553122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85,20673,48496,475,95177],"class_list":["post-606058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv","tag-internet-piracy","tag-irdeto","tag-multichoice","tag-waka-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606058"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606061,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606058\/revisions\/606061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}