How important - how valuable a brand - is M-Net to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service?
In essence - from simply a consumer and monetary point of view - it would appear that the M-Net component alone is more valuable that all of the rest of the DStv channels ... combined.
The new tariff structure for the various monthly DStv subscription increases coming into effect from 1 April 2013 provides an interesting clue of the face value - the "shelf price" just taken in terms of rands and cents - placed on the M-Net component as a part of the overall DStv pay-TV package.
From 1 April, DStv Premium - the pay-TV bouquet from MultiChoice which contains the most TV channels - will cost R625 per month.
M-Net subscribers (analogue terrestrial subscribers - those subscribed to M-Net and receiving it through an M-Net decoder) will pay R300 per month from April.
DStv Premium subscribers who want DStv Premium as a package but without M-Net (M-Net not coming through on the satellite but separately) will pay R278,80 from 1 April.
With just the M-Net component priced at R300, and DStv Premium without the M-Net part priced at R278,80, its clear that the M-Net part on its own is regarded as very valuable and that M-Net remains a very important content provider as a pay-TV broadcaster. It's actually worth a tad more than all of the rest of the DStv Premium channels combined (excluding the M-Net part of course).
Put another way: It's not that DStv Premium's set of TV channels (excluding the M-Net part) is not worth a lot or not seen as valuable. It is. It's just that M-Net - on its own - is regarded to be as valuable as all the rest of the offering combined.
