Naspers owned pay TV operator MultiChoice has announced that effective 1 April 2011, many of its bouquets on DStv will see a price increase.

MultiChoice informed their customers that their monthly subscription fees will increase from 1 April 2011. “Wherever possible, the increases have been kept to a minimum,” said Fathima Ebrahim, MultiChoise spokesperson.

Three bouquets are effected by the price increase namely DStv Premium, DStv Compact and DStv Select. PVR acces, DStv Mobile, DStv North and South Indian, PVR add on, DStv Lite, DCC, ZEE TV and DStv Portuguesa rates all remains unchanged.

The new DStv prices are as follows:

The question now remains is when is enough enough? MultiChoice are clearly making large margins of profits from its DStv offering with it having been the only Pay TV operator in South Africa for long and still having exclusive broadcast rights to certain sporting events leaving fans with no other choice then to cough up.

There is however a glimmer of hope for the non sport fans in the form of TopTV.

DStv Mobile the new mobile television service from Multichoice that allows you to view a range of DStv channels straight on your mobile phone has announced that the release of their Android and Nokia apps are almost here.

DStv Mobile launched in December 2010 with the Drifta decoder, a mobile decoder that allows PC users and Apple iPad, iPhone4 and iPod users to view the channels on their devices, but lets face it although the Drifta decoder comes in at an affordable price of just under R600, the currently supported devices are limited.

DStv Mobile has however announced on their Twitter account that from April 2011 the Drifta will be compatible with certain Nokia and Android phones through the new applications that they plan to released.

The Drifta decoder works by receiving the DStv Mobile DVB-H signal and then retransmitting it over WiFi where phones, PC’s or devices with the DStv Mobile application can then receive it to view the channels.

DStv is set to launch the DStv Mobile service on 1 April 2011 commercially at a cost of R36 per month, there are however speculation that premium DStv subscribers would have access to the service for free. The service is currently in trial and you can buy your Drifta decoder at major retailers and make use of it for free until the end of March 2011.

Earlier this year MultiChoice released a cheaper HD PVR to the market called the HD PVR 2P, the HD PVR 2P was a hit from start and allows views to watch one channel and record another channel at the same time.

The popularity of the HD PVR 2P may be largely due to the affordability of the device but apart from that, it lacked certain features that other PVR users have been enjoying since the start.

For almost a year now HD PVR 2P users had to go without the functionality of being able to do series recording, I know I usually sit and schedule my recording way in advance to ensure I don’t miss my favorite series. HD PVR 2P users also do not have access to DSTV On Demand, a service that lets you download certain shows to your PVR and watch it at your leisure.

Great news for DStv premium subscribers with a HD PVR 2P is that from today DStv On Demand CatchUp and series recording will be available on the HD PVR 2P.

DStv On Demand offers a variety of general entertainment, sport and actuality programming on the CatchUp service. The programmes are available within 24 hours after first being broadcast on DStv and are normally available for viewing for a full 7 days thereafter. The CatchUp service is also available online at dstv.com with up to 80 hours of programming and movies.

Multichoice South Africa has launched the long awaited DSTV Mobile after years of fighting over a licence and testing.

DSTV Mobile is a mobile broadcasting service that allows you to watch TV on handheld devices capable of receiving Digital Video Broadcast Handheld (DVB-H) signals.

Current available DVB-H capable handsets in South Africa include the Nokia 5330, Nokia N96 and ZTE F900, however the company are in discussion with various cellphone manufactures and are confident that more DVB-H capable handsets will be in South Africa soon.

For those that do not have access the a DVB-H capable handset, do not despair. Multichoice has also launched a mobile decoder called the Drifta that will enable you to view DSTV Mobile on you iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and PC through wireless. The Drifta decoder receives the DSTV Mobile signal and then relays it to the devices through WiFi by acting as an access point. Blackberry OS, Symbian 3 and Android applications are in development that will enable more smartphone to work with the Drifta mobile decoder.

The channel line-up on the DSTV Mobile bouquet will initially include a selection of SuperSport channels (1, 2, 3 and Blitz), Africa Magic, Cartoon Network, Trace and a DSTV Events Channel. The e.Mobile bouquet contains The eNews Channel and Channel O. More channels on both services will be announced soon.

Now for the pricing, the DSTV Mobile subscription will cost you R39 per month but only from the 1st of April 2011, that means if you are an early adopter you can make use of the DSTV Mobile service for free.

The Drifta decoder will be available for R599 from major retailers from 1 December 2010 and the service can be activated via the MultiChoice call centre or the DSTV Mobile website. DVB-H cellphones will be made available through mobile network operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C and the subscription is activated directly off the handset.

MultiChoice has again hit back to stay ahead in the Pay-TV game by announcing it latest HD-PVR decoder today just ahead of the World Cup that will be broadcasted in HD.

The new HD-PVR decoder, called the HD-PVR 2P, will allow customers to view one channel and record another at the same time. It also boasts the same 500 GB HDD the previous models has, ensuring for up to 50 hours of HD recording.

The HD-PVR 2P will for now not support Video On Demand, or the ability to block record series. These capabilities will however be added later this year via a over the air software upgrade.

Good news for those that has been wanting to get their hands on DSTV’s HD offerings but couldn’t due to the high price of the decoders, the HD-PVR 2P will retail for R1999, a thousand rand cheaper than the other models currently on the market.

This is a good move by MultiChoice but I still think we need a more lower-end HD decoder on the market, specially for those that live in complex apartments and only have the availability of one DSTV feed to them. Still I welcome this HD decoder and it’s evident that the competition from TopTV is causing DSTV to drop prices.