DStv’s much anticipated video on demand movie rental system, DStv BoxOffice, went live this weekend but things did not go as smooth as planned.

The DStv BoxOffice service started becoming available to DStv premium PVR users since early morning Friday 22 July 2011, but since then allot of users are yet still to receive their movie rentals.

Friday evening I set out to test out the new BoxOffice service from DStv, only to be disappointed by the slow registration progress. To sign up you have to SMS your smartcard number and then your DStv BoxOffice account will be set up, I SMS’d my smartcard number through at around 19:00 and only the next morning at around 10:00 I got an SMS telling me that they are experiencing a large demand and are sitting with a backlog of SMS messages that will be attended to. In the SMS DStv also promised an extra free movie rental on the house to make up for the long wait.

Sunday around 12:00 me and the wife decided we wanted to watch a movie, so I set out and followed the rental process by SMSing the unique code to the number onscreen to initiate my movie rental. According to the instructions, shortly after you have SMS’ed the unique code through to the number you will notified via the DStv decoder messaging system that your movie is available to watch.

It is now Monday morning close to 09:00 and I am yet still to receive my movie rental.

For a company operated by Naspers with huge brands behind their name like MWeb one would expect that they would be used to high volume launches by now, I mean DStv knows how many subscribers they have and they know how many of them have PVR decoders, working out the demand would be easy.

Have you tried DStv BoxOffice? If so, tell us about your experience.

Multichoice has launched their much anticipated DStv BoxOffice service last night at an event in Johannesburg. DStv BoxOffice is a video on demand rental service that enable DStv customer to rent the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies for a nominal fee straight from their PVR decoders.

DStv started rolling out the BoxOffice service to premium subscribers from last night and will provide them with 48 hours worth of movie rentals at a price of R25 per movie.

DStv BoxOffice provides subscribers with access to 15 movie rentals at a time that are all stored on their PVR decoders, once a subscriber has then paid for the movie rental the movie will become available to watch.

The big question is will you loose valuable recording space on your PVR now that the BoxOffice movies are downloaded to your device? The answer is no, DStv has reserved space for the BoxOffice service on the PVR decoder since day one so none of your recording will be affected, but due to the limited reserve space you will only have access to 48 hours worth of movies at a time.

New movies will be added to the DStv BoxOffice service every week, with DStv planning to provide up to 150 blockbuster Hollywood movies each year on the service a mere 4 to 6 months after the cinema release.

Payment of the movie rentals can happen via your credit card or via your DStv BoxOffice account that operates almost the same as your DStv account that you can pay monthly the same ways you would pay your DStv account.

For a list of DStv BoxOffice movies currently available or for more information about the service visit http://boxoffice.dstv.com/

Rumor about DStv launching a Pay Per View service started late last year and the rumor was recently confirmed when DStv amended their Terms and Conditions and added clauses under the heading BoxOffice Service.

Since then DStv have slipped up a few times, with some DStv PVR owners saying that the BoxOffice menu has showed up on their PVR’s but was quickly removed. DStv BoxOffice will be South Africa’s first online Video On Demand service, allowing users to rent the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies for an unconfirmed nominal fee of R29 per movie. The service will make use of the current DStv satellite infrastructure and be available to DStv PVR at no additional cost, except to paying for the movie rental.

Well know television journalist, Thinus Ferreira, has reported that DStv PVR owners will be able to pay for their DStv BoxOffice movie rentasl either by Credit Card or it can be charged to their DStv account, multichoice has however not confirmed this.

According to an invitation I received last night, Multichoice will be rolling out the red carpet and welcome DStv BoxOffice – South Africa’s first video on demand service on the 21st of July 2011. It is still unclear whether the BoxOffice service will be activated on that night, but hopefully PVR owners will be able to use the service from 22 July 2011.

On Friday, 8 April 2011, DStv will be launching their 6th High Definition (HD) channel to join the DStv family of HD channels.

The new HD channel, SuperSport HD 3,  will be complementing the existing two SuperSport HD channels to deliver HD capable viewers with a even wider variety of sport in High Definition.

With the introduction of SuperSport HD 3, DStv will reshuffle it’s sport broadcasts across the current SuperSport HD channels.

SuperSport HD1, channel 171: SS HD1 will consists of a variety of sporting codes, including local and international rugby, PSL football, Uefa Champions League, tennis majors, European Tour, US PGA golf, F1 and MotoGP.

SuperSport HD2, channel 174: SS HD2, which currently shows the EPL, will be the new channel which will be available from 8 April 2011 at 6am. It will feature various High Definition sports programming, including selected cricket, Bundesliga soccer, PSL soccer, Europa League soccer, tennis majors, Champions League soccer, F1 and MotoGP.

SuperSport HD3, channel 176: SS HD3 will now broadcast the 24-hour English Premier League channel (previously available on SS HD2). A limited amount of programming, particularly legacy matches will be in Standard Definition because of their historical nature.

Apart from the changes above to the SuperSport HD channels, DStv will also be broadcasting sport on the M-Net HD channel on Saturday’s between 2-7 pm, these sport will mainly consist of Rugby but viewers may also see soccer from time to time.

With the addition of SuperSport HD 3, the total amount of High Definition channels on DStv now stands at six with the inclusion of M-Net HD, SuperSport HD 1, SuperSport HD 2, Discovery HD Showcase and M-Net Movies HD 1.

“We made a commitment to our viewers and now we are delivering,” said Andre de Villiers, SuperSport’s marketing director. “Sporting events are increasingly being produced in High Definition and SuperSport is committed to bringing more of this broadcast technology to the market. Sport, in particular, lends itself to the excellent quality offered by High Definition.”

“High Definition channels are becoming the television standard globally. We don’t want our subscribers to be left behind – our focus is on rolling out as many High Definition channels onto the DStv platform as possible,” commented Aletta Alberts, GM: Content, MultiChoice.

It’s great to see South Africa catching up with the rest of the world where HD channels are a norm nowadays, but how much I enjoy sport I would still like to see more variety when it comes to HD channels in South Africa.

DStv Mobile has announced that they will be adding three new channels to their mobile TV offering bringing the total number of channels available on the mobile TV platform to twelve.

With the free introductory phase coming to an end at the end of March 2011, DStv Mobile subscribers will enjoy the three extra channel starting from 1 April 2011. The channels that will join the existing DStv Mobile bouquet are CNNi, E!Entertainment and Sony Max.

Not only will DStv Mobile introduce the three new channels they have also promised applications for Nokia and Android smartphones to enable people with those phones to watch DStv Mobile with the Drifta decoder.

From 1 April 2011, you can expect to pay R36 per month to watch DStv Mobile through the Drifta decoder or alternatively if you have a DVB-H phone you can also opt for the R9 per week option.

Good news for DStv Premium subscribers is that they will have access to DStv Mobile through the Drifta decoder or a DVB-H phone at no extra cost per month. If you are a DStv Compact subscriber and subscribe to DStv Mobile before 31 March 2011 you will get access to the service for free until the end of March 2012.

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.

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.

With TopTV about to launch on 1 May 2010 starting from R99 per month, DSTV has responded by introducing DSTV Lite.

Multichoice has announced that it will provide customers with more value and choice by introducing a brand new bouquet called DSTV Lite. There will now be six bouquets available on the DSTV network ranging from R20 per month to the premium package of R529 per month.

DSTV will also be adding additional channels to the lower end bouquets. DStv Select 1 will get 8 additional video channels, to have a total of 34 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Select 2 will get 6 additional video channels, to have a total of 32 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Compact will get 4 additional video channels, to have a total of 44 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels.

The various options subscribers will now have on DSTV include the following:

• DStv EasyView R20
• DStv Lite R99
• DStv Select 1 R148
• DStv Select 2 R148
• DStv Compact R232
• DStv Premium R529

For a comprehensive channel guide to the various packages check out the DSTV website.

Its clear that Multichoice is feeling the pressure from soon to be launched TopTV, who knows maybe we will soon have affordable premium pay TV in South Africa.

You own an iPhone and is a sports fanatic? Great news is that there is now a iPhone application out from SuperSport.

The SuperSport iPhone application will give you all the latest news, scores, fixtures and information about your favourite sports including Rugby, Cricket, Football, Golf and much much more.

Head on over to the iTunes store to get your hands on the new SuperSport iPhone Application by MultiChoice.

For long DSTV has been the only Pay TV operator in South Africa and been milking their customers for every cent they have, but this is about to change very soon with the launch of On Digital Media (ODM).

On Digital Media has revealed in an exclusive interview with Fin24 their details about the service they plan to launch in May 2010. ODM’s Pay TV channels bouquets pricing will range from R99 to R249 per month.

The content ODM will be providing will range from local to international with the likes of Fox Entertainment and MGM.

Bad news for the rugby and cricket lovers is that they will have to stick with DSTV for now as ODM will not provide rugby, cricket or PSL football at launch, but would gain rights to niche sporting content such as martial arts. Good news is that ODM would also pursue rights for other sports as the contracts with Multichoice expire and become available.

CEO of ODM Vino Govender, also revealed the following:

• ODM will provide Fox Entertainment, MGM and other international channels for the first time in SA.
• Packages will begin at R99 for a basic package with 30 channels and range up to R249 for a premium package with a full range of channels grouped by genre.
• ODM is in discussions with Multichoice to explore the possibility of acquiring content from DStv.
• Customers will be able to use existing DStv satellite dishes with the ODM service, but the dish will have to be repositioned.
• ODM recommends a 75cm dish and the ODM service has been designed to be more stable in bad weather than DStv.
• ODM’s satellite footprint runs from northern Nigeria to Cape Town.
• ODM decoders are being provided by UEC, a division of the Altech Group.
• ODM plans to launch a PVR decoder within 12 months from launch.
• The electronic programme guide (EPG) for ODM has been designed by the NDS Group, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and is more sophisticated than what is used by Multichoice, according to Govender.

For more in depth details visit Fin24