by Thinus Ferreira
A petition started by upset DStv subscribers in South Africa has grown to over 152 000 signatures in 7 days since it was started last week, with South Africans asking for lower monthly fees and payment compassion similar to what's happening in other countries where MultiChoice continues to give massive discounts and free bouquet upgrades and has now provided relief for subscribers in Ghana and Zimbabwe as well after giving reprieve to its pay-TV customers in Nigeria and Botswana.
Last week Thursday Sfiso Gwala started a petition entitled "DStv should give S.A. subscribers a payment break or decrease prices during Covid-19" on the change.org platform where it has quickly shot up to become one of the highest "trending" and popular petitions on the platform.
The over 152 000 signatures a week later which saw a jump of another 41 000 signatures on Wednesday night since the 109 000 of Wednesday afternoon, is more than a hundred thousands more than the petition that was started in October 2019 that demanded that MultiChoice return the Crime+Investigation, History and Lifetime TV channels from A+E Networks UK to DStv and which eventually saw the History and Lifetime channels saved.
The petition was prompted after South African DStv subscribers discovered that MultiChoice through its MultiChoice Africa division is giving discounts of up to 75% to DStv and GOtv subscribers, as well as automatically upgrading them to the next higher bouquet for free as part of consumer relief because of Covid-19 national shutdowns.
MultiChoice Africa runs and oversees the various countries in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.
After Nigeria and Botswana, MultiChoice has now also extended the free package upgrades to its subscribers in Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Martin Mabutho, MultiChoice Nigeria's chief customer officer said that the huge pay-TV discounts are a way of thanking pay-TV customers for their consistent loyalty.
In Botswana MultiChoice thanked DStv subscribers in that country last week for their loyalty and automatically upgraded them the next DStv bouquet for free.
Lorato Mwape, MultiChoice Botswana's acting managing director, in a statement, said that "It is our priority to put customers at the heart of everything we do, and in line with our mission to make great entertainment available, even during the most trying of times, we wanted to gift our very loyal and valued customer base by giving them a chance to experience a wider range of the quality content we carry on our other packages. This is our token of appreciation for their continued support".
Now MultiChoice Zimbabwe is giving DStv subscribers a free bouquet upgrade as well.
"The upgrades are a reward for customers' support for the DStv brand and a means of supporting customers at this difficult time," says Liz Dziva, MultiChoice Zimbabwe PR manager. "DStv customers who are fully paid up on their subscriptions will automatically get upgraded" to the next higher package at no extra cost."
In Ghana MultiChoice is upgrading DStv and GOTV subscribers to the next higher package for free as well.
Cecil Sunkwa Mills, MultiChoice Ghana managing director, said MultiChoice is doing it to thanks customers for their loyalty.
"It is our priority to put customers at the heart of everything we do, and in line with our mission to make great entertainment available, even during the most trying of times, we wanted to gift our very loyal and valued customer base by giving them a chance to experience a wider range of the quality content we carry on our other packages. This is our token of appreciation for their continued support," said Cecil Sunkwa Mills.
Since a week ago last Thursday, representatives of MultiChoice South Africa and its PR company Aprio were asked for comment and whether MultiChoice has any plans to offer similar discounts or free upgrades to South African customers as in Nigeria and Botswana.
MultiChoice said it was working on a response but a week later haven't yet responded.
In South Africa, MultiChoice's biggest market, DStv subscribers are already paying some of the highest monthly subscription fees after currency adjustments where another annual increase came into effect at the beginning of April amidst the Covid-19 shutdown in the country.
Through no fault of MultiChoice and to make matters worse, the DStv price increase happened as live sports programming on SuperSport dried up because of the global pandemic, while multiple international and local TV channels had to adjust their schedules and push out new programming, while some local weekday soaps have run out of episodes with more to follow during May.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: South Africa's DStv subscribers up in arms as thousands sign a petition over massive MultiChoice discounts and free bouquet upgrades in other African countries over Covid-19: 'My kids laugh in my face that Anaconda has been repeated so much they are no longer scared'.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Over 100 000 DStv subscribers in South Africa sign a petition in just 4 days asking MultiChoice for payment compassion and a DStv fee decrease after other African countries got up to 75% discounts and free bouquet upgrades.
