Naspers CEO Koos Bekker says the media conglomerate plans to roll out a new pay-TV decoder about every 18 months to keep increasing capacity on the box with more space for movies through the video-on-demand (VOD) service it is offering with movies through DStv BoxOffice as well as the DStv On Demand service.
Earlier in the month I reported that MultiChoice said that a new "connected box" will be launched as a new decoder during the first quarter in 2013. MultiChoice explained that a new DStv decoder would increase the capacity from 20 hours to 175 hours of catch-up content.
A day later MultiChoice said that the timing of a new connected DStv decoder has not been determined yet and that it is speculation that a connected box is coming in the first quarter of 2013.
Naspers, which owns MultiChoice which runs the DStv pay-TV service, announced its half-year financial results on Tuesday.
Naspers reported that its DStv subscribers grew by an additional 187 000 subscribers in South Africa between March 2012 and September 2012. DStv now reaches 4,2 million households in South Africa.
The sale of personal video recorders (PVRs) grew by 90 000, with 747 000 PVR households now existing in South Africa. The DStv BoxOffice service through which DStv Premium subscribers can watch VOD titles, has now reached 400 000 per month.
Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said "we need more and more capacity, so every 18 months we'll double the capacity and with that the number of movies we can bring you".
