by Thinus Ferreira
Is it possible for MultiChoice and M-Net to theoretically allocate its 007 James Bond channel to the channel number of 007 on DStv?
Imagine for a moment that MultiChoice was able to place its 007 James Bond DStv pop-up channel, that it just revived for a third time on its pay-TV platform, on the channel number of 007 on DStv.
If the 007 James Bond channel were available on DStv channel number 007, it would have been an example of mnemonics, or what we call a mnemonic device - a tool to help people remember something and/or to make it stand out.
What would be cooler to remember or to do that to keep in mind that to watch James Bond films, you need to press "0", "0", "7" on your DStv remote control (or what would essentially amount to "7")?
Not to go too deep into the field of semiotics, but 007 as the channel number and "sign" of such a channel would work in terms of brand, it would work in terms of channel number memory short-hand, and it would work in terms of coolness factor. But is it even possible?
Two weeks ago, a few days before M-Net's 007 James Bond pop-up channel started, I suddenly thought about the MultiChoice channel numbering nomenclature and process.
I decided to ask MultiChoice, through its PR company Aprio, in light of the 007 pop-up channel, if it would ever be possible to have a channel on "channel number" 007 for instance - as well as more broadly a series of questions, for context, around how its channel numbering works and what is possible and not when it comes to DStv channel number allocation.
The M-Net Movies 009 James Bond pop-up channel on DStv then started on 22 January, and has now come and gone and ended on 31 January. Unfortunately MultiChoice didn't bother to - or for whatever reason couldn't - answer any of the questions TVwithThinus asked during the duration that the channel was on DStv.
How did MultiChoice's channel numbering convention for instance start and come about? M-Net as DStv's most important channel, of course, occupies the prime spot of 101, but why for instance did MultiChoice start numbering from 101 and not 100, or not 10, or 001?
MultiChoice didn't respond.
Would it theoretically be possible to place a TV channel on the DStv decoder on a channel number like 010, or is it that Mayan and Mesopotamian zero at the beginning that causes machine blindness and makes a computer unable to read it as a placeholder "number"?
Or is it possible to do, but because of purely consumer psychology behaviour it's not so advisable? Do consumers struggle to start a remote control numerical input with anything like zero's? Again, MultiChoice could possible have shed some light but didn't bother to answer while the 007 channel was running.
Interestingly, some overseas pay-TV operators do make use of -digit channel numbers, for instance "82", there are occurences of a 1-digit channel number, and some even use a 4-digit channel number code, for instance "1002".
Would it theoretically be possible for there to exist on MultiChoice's DStv channel number system a 1-, 2-, and 4-digit DStv channel codes, and if yes, why have these channel number "ranges" never been used? Could it ever be used?
Again, nothing from MultiChoice with a response that was zero.
Anyway, these are answers that would be interesting and insightful to know for highly interested readers who are really into knowing more about television, as well as that group of pay-TV viewers who are extremely engaged with a brand like DStv subscribers - and of course you, reading this article right now.
Zero is never nothing, and maybe one day we'll find out what role this deceptively "nothing number" plays in something like a DStv decoder.
