On Tuesday the satellite pay-TV service MultiChoice did a positive name-change in South Africa to one of its DStv bouquets, changing its second-tiered DStv Extra bouquet offering to DStv Compact Plus.
MultiChoice has been offering, and using, a DStv Compact Plus bouquet elsewhere in Africa and the "introduction" of it through a name change in South Africa is a good service adjustment to align its second best offering in South Africa with what it is called on the rest of the African continent.
MultiChoice quietly launched DStv Extra just over 4 years ago in June 2013 but based on the brand name alone, consumers struggled to know where exactly it would fit into the tiered DStv offerings.
The renamed DStv Compact Plus makes it clearer that it's an enhanced "plus" version of DStv Compact.
From 1 September to 31 September all existing DStv Compact subscribers - DStv's third-tiered bouquet - will be "upgraded" and get access to the DStv Compact Plus (or old DStv Extra) channels without being charged more as a consumer sampling exercise.
DStv Compact Plus costs R489 per month and these DStv subscribers get access to DStv BoxOffice, DStv Catch Up and DStv Now online and on the app for smart devices.
DStv Compact Plus contains more channels than DStv Compact and additionally has channels like Comedy Central Africa (DStv 122), ITV Choice (DStv 123), Lifetime Africa (DStv 133) and the Afrikaans channel kykNET (DStv 144), as well as SuperSport 7 (DStv 207), SuperSport 8 (DStv 208) and BBC Worldwide's CBeebies (DStv 306).
"DStv Compact Plus is a great solution for our Compact customers looking for more entertainment for their family," says Mark Rayner, MultiChoice South Africa CEO in a statement.
"We strive to continuously enhance our DStv packages to give our customers more entertainment value for their money."
MultiChoice says the change from DStv Extra to DStv Compact Plus will also eliminate confusion between the DStv Extra offering and MultiChoice's XtraView service which allows customers to connect more than one decoder under one subscription.
