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The TopTV versus DStv pay TV war has only just begun. Insider sources are telling me that MultiChoice is planning a massive and full-scale offensive on all fronts in the price war against new pay TV entrant TopTV.
MultiChoice's full-out assault on TopTV will include MultiChoice matching (I'm told the plans are being worked out on this) TopTV's seemingly ''installation free'' model where subscribers buy a decoder and don't seem to pay for installation or for that matter, that much for a decoder. Although MultiChoice is already subsidizing DStv decoder models heavily according to a scale, installation costs remain a prohibitive barrier to new pay TV subscriber uptake, especially in lower income groups. This is where On Digital Media (ODM) is now making a heavy subsidization effort by removing installation cost and even pushing down decoder hardware cost to fascilitate subscriber growth. Look out for TopTV adding several thousand more subscribers this weekend when new stock becomes available from Thursday. I'm told MultiChoice is planning ''on fighting TopTV tooth and nail on this''.
Although their official stance is that they welcome competition to South Africa's pay TV market MultiChoice is not so much in shock, as somewhat surprised (and a bit jealous) at TopTV: not so much for being able to capture the elusive lower end pay TV entry market that has somewhat stubbornly evaded MultiChoice over the past few years, but the unexpected rapid way that TopTV has managed to sell 50 000 decoders over the past weekend. I'm told that MultiChoice, although they expected TopTV to make some inroads did NOT expect that reaction. MultiChoice is however not bewildered, "'I'd say more determined to be better,'' says a well-placed source.
Other sources within MultiChoice privy to discussions that have happened since the weekend and immediately on Monday, but who are not allowed to talk to the media about it, tells me ''MultiChoice had plans, a lot of plans especially for this month [May] and next month, but now we've gone into overdrive and looking at enhancing what we're planning even further''. Another source revealed to me that upcoming plans revolve around a decoder special in which installation is subsidized similar to what TopTV is doing now. ''It's irritating. Them coming in and doing that [TopTV selling 50 000 decoders] but we're not sitting back,'' says a third source. ''We have plans. We have room to manuevre slightly, not a lot but a bit. This year DStv will be around for 15 years - we have grown with our subscribers and we look after them. And we're not reactionary in these matters. We're busy with exciting stuff and it's been on the cards way before TopTV became TopTV selling a lot of decoders.''
I haven't spoken to MultiChoice's official spokespeople, so none of these upcoming plans are confirmed (although one of these sources used the word ''imminent''), but as soon as it happens, I will have the news.
