With its newly-launched commercial video-on-demand (VOD) service, DStv BoxOffice, now operational, MultiChoice is planning to bring personal digital video recorders (PVRs) with bigger hard drives to the consumer market so that more VOD content will be immediately available to subscribers.
DStv BoxOffice currently offers a rolling selection of 15 movies, priced at R25 each, to DStv Premium subscribers who get 48 hours to watch it after payment confirmation. DStv BoxOffice will be extended to the internet by the end of the year, similar in the way that DStv on Demand is available with a Catch Up service on decoders storing programming, but also an internet version.
When DStv BoxOffice is extended to the internet at the end of 2011 which will be available to both PC and Apple Mac users, MultiChoice plans to offer 40 movies as part of the VOD service through the online version because the service is somewhat less dependent on hard drive space and more limited by broadband connectivity.
MultiChoice is envisioning bringing PVRs to market with larger hard drives so that more VOD content for DStv BoxOffice can be downloaded to decoders, transmitted in space capacity overnight or all day long at low bandwidth.
Here's some interesting facts:
In America, both EchoStar/Dish Network and DirecTV offer VOD services through satellite to subscribers with a PVR.
In Britain Sky Movies Box Office's limited movie choices and relatively high prices have increasingly left it suffering in comparison to online DVD rental systems.
Virgin Media ranks as Britain's largest provider of VOD content, with over 3 million video-on-demand customers. Virgin media offers a ''true'' VOD system, where the content isn't downloaded onto the decoder but starts playing from servers. Half of all Virgin Media subscribers regularly use the VOD service.
