MultiChoice is experiencing an Olympic boon as DStv subscribers are upgrading their lower-tiered bouquets for a month to catch the sporting action of the 2012 Olympic Games which the pay TV platform is showing on multiple TV channels during August.
With SuperSport having the exclusive pay TV rights for South Africa for the Olympic Games in London with 24 hour television coverage across 8 TV channels -4 high definition (HD) and 4 standard definition (SD) channels - DStv subscribers have started to upgrade last week and this past weekend to higher-tiered and more expensive bouquets in order to follow the rolling sport coverage on television.
MultiChoice allows DStv subscribers to upgrade to a bigger package with more TV channels anytime, for a minimum period of a month. According to insiders, the MultiChoice call centre received numerous requests for bouquet upgrades for the coming month. It's most probably due to the additional sport content shown on DStv during August and the Olympic Games, with the Olympic coverage shown on more channels which become available to subscribers on higher-tiered DStv packages.
"DStv subscribers want to see more of it [Olympic Games] and are willing to pay a bit more for a month than what they usually do since it's 'event television' for them," an insider told me. "It's add-on television which they're willing to pay for and which isn't always available, but is now."
MultiChoice, asked how many DStv subscribers have already upgraded or requested upgrades to bigger DStv packages from lower-tiered bouquets for the month of August declined to provide numbers and said MultiChoice "only share figures that are published in the Naspers financial results".
MultiChoice was asked what in terms of content or an additional value-added proposition DStv is providing to subscribers now which is possibly making subscribers requesting upgrades. MultiChoice declined an answer but the pay TV platform did say that the process to upgrade to a bigger DStv bouquet is easy. "Customers can log on to the self-service section of DStv.com and complete the process online. Or they can simply phone the call centre."
According to MultiChoice subscribers can upgrade at any time. A single downgrade is allowed in a month.
