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 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.

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.

With the arrival of TopTV on 1 May 2010 every South African will now be able to afford premium quality Pay TV.

From as little as R99 per month subscribers will now have access to over 2o channels consisting of local and international programming. TopTV will initially offer four different Pay TV packages namely Variety, Kids and Music, Entertainment and Knowledge and Ultimate Movies.

“The majority of South Africans who can afford to pay between R99 and R249 a month, will have access to world class television entertainment across all genres including News & Knowledge, Movies, Family and Sport, Kids, Music and Cultural programming.” says Vino Govender, CEO of On Digital Media (ODM). Govender adds, “Some of the highlights of these channels include the Top History channel which will bring the history of South Africa to the fore as never before, BBC News, Eurosport News, 6 dedicated 24 hour movie channels, as well as services for the Portuguese and French communities in South Africa.”

TopTV has established partnerships with leading studios around the world, including CBS, Fox, Warner, Discovery and Disney.

TopTV subscribers can look forward to channels such as Zee Cinema, Discovery Travel & Living, Fox Entertainment, Fine Living Network, Current TV, BET, MGM, Showtime, Discovery Science, Silver, Baby TV, Setanta Africa, France24, BBC World, Hi Nolly, Kidsco, Jim Jam, Baby TV, Fuel TV, and Fox FX just to name a few.

TopTV’s set-top boxes and dishes will be available at a introductory price of only R499. The introductory price includes a TopTV decoder (STB), Installation, Smart Card, Power Supply, Male / Female RF Cable, RCA Cable, Remote Control Unit, Batteries and instruction manual. Set-top boxes and dishes will be available through Makro, Pep, Dion, Game, selected Jumbo Cash & Carry stores, CCW, Brown’s, Weirs and House & Home stores.

South Africa’s second Pay TV operator TopTV is set to launch on the 1st of May by ODM (On Digital Media)

TopTV will be the first competition DSTV faces which had the monopoly for Pay TV in South Africa for the past decade. The question remains will TopTV pose a threat to DSTV?

Top TV is set to launch with a range of seven channel bouquets ranging from R99 to R249. The bouquets will consist out of channels made up from several categories namely Variety, Kids & Music, Entertainment & Knowledge and Movies.

The R99 package will only include channels from the Variety category where as on the R159 package users will get the Variety channels and have the choice of either Kids & Music or Entertainment & Knowledge channels. The R189 package from TopTV includes Varienty channels, Kids & Music channels as well as Entertainment & Knowledge channels. For R220 users will get the same benefits of the R159 package with Movie channels added, and for R249 users will get all the channels available on TopTV.

People interested in TopTV can either their existing DSTV dish and turn it or can obtain a full installation voucher for R699 which includes a decoder, dish and installation. There are rumors floating around that TopTV is set to have a launch price of R499 for the whole package.

It would be interesting to see how many people will make the move to TopTV. I foresee the die hard sport fanatics will stay with DSTV and people more interested in entertainment and movies will probably make the move over to TopTV as their pricing is much more attractive.

What is your opinion? Is it worth moving over to TopTV or are you staying with DSTV? Also if you have never been a DSTV subscriber are you considering taking up one of the TopTV packages?

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