by Thinus Ferreira
On Sunday night a petition started by upset DStv subscribers in South Africa sped past a whopping 200 000 signatures in a week and a half since it was started, 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.
MultiChoice which is not giving South Africa's DStv subscribers the similar free bouquet upgrades across the board because of the Covid-19 pandemic as for DStv subscribers elsewhere in Africa, has now provided relief for its subscribers in a large number of countries, including Nigeria and Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.
Sfiso Gwala petition entitled "DStv should give S.A. subscribers a payment break or decrease prices during Covid-19" on the change.org platform has quickly shot up to become one of the highest "trending" and popular petitions on the platform - an indication of a growing number of consumers' anger and dissatisfaction with MultiChoice and DStv in South Africa.
The over 200 000 signatures by Sunday night is hundreds of 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 also extended the free package upgrades to its subscribers in Ghana and Zimbabwe, as well as Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Namibia.
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".
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.
In Malawi, MultiChoice Malawi tacked on that country's name to MultiChoice Africa' pro forma statement with Gus Banda, MultiChoice Malawi managing director, saying the free bouquet upgrade is "a way of thanking our valued customers for their loyalty".
"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".
In Uganda, Joan Semanda Kizza, MultiChoice Uganda PR and communications manager, in a statement said "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 valued customers 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".
In Zambia, MultiChoice is also upgrading its customers for free.
"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," said Leah Kooma, MultiChoice Zambia's chief customer officer, in a statement. "This is our token of appreciation for their continued support.".
MultiChoice subscribers in Namibia have also been upgraded to the next higher bouquet for free since April.
Roger Gertze, MultiChoice Namibia managing director, in a statement said that the free upgrade is "MultiChoice Namibia's way of thanking 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."
On 23 April TVwithThinus asked representatives of MultiChoice South Africa and its PR company Aprio for comment and whether MultiChoice has any plans to offer similar discounts or free upgrades to South African customers as in other African countries.
A day later, on 24 April MultiChoice and Aprio said they were working on a response. By the publishing date of this article, 4 May, they haven't responded with any statement or comment.
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.
