MultiChoice adds 4 kids channels to DStv Family

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is making the three kids channels, Paramount Global's Nickelodeon and Nick Jr, as well as DreamWorks available to the DStv Family bouquet from 25 August.

MultiChoice says it is repositioning DStv Family as "South Africa's home of kids entertainment" in a pivot to add more value for DStv Family subscribers. The DStv Family bouquet will now include all 14 DStv kids' channels.

"While our broader packaging review remains ongoing, our research shows that DStv Family customers value kids' content as much as they do local shows and movies," says Byron du Plessis, MultiChoice South Africa CEO.

"By adding Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, and DreamWorks to the DStv Family package alongside favourites like Cartoonito and Disney Channel, we are making DStv Family the undisputed home of kids' entertainment."

MultiChoice puts Biggie back for lower-tier DStv subscribers until the season's end.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice is putting Biggie back for lower-tiered DStv subscribers with the Big Brother Mzansi channel that will be restored for DStv Family and DStv Access subscribers from 21 March until the show ends on 3 April after the DStv pop-up channel was ripped away after a week's promo upsell period at the end of January.

MultiChoice experienced a big backlash from DStv subscribers after it took the Big Brother Mzansi pop-up channel away from DStv Family and DStv Access subscribers a week after the 5th season of the localised Banijay format reality show started on 23 January.

In February MultiChoice said in a statement that "From the onset we communicated that Big Brother Mzansi would be available exclusively on DStv Compact, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Premium" and that "as we have done for select content in the past, we opened up channel 198 to all our customers in Southern Africa to allow for sampling of the content for a limited period."

Besides the anger from DStv subscribers, the TV ratings of Big Brother Mzansi - running as a pop-up channel and with various highlight shows on M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel - has been disappointing.

This is likely also factoring into MultiChoice's decision to return the channel to DStv subscribers on cheaper packages with the bigger distribution availability that might help to lift ratings.

MultiChoice told DStv subscribers "Big Brother Mzansi is back on your screens from Monday 21 March up until the finale".

ALSO READ: Uproar after MultiChoice rips away Big Brother Mzansi from cheaper DStv packages, show adds 2 housemates.

MultiChoice confirms 2019's DStv price increases from 1 April that will range from between 1.96% to 6.42%.

MultiChoice on Tuesday confirmed 2019's DStv price increases for its pay-TV packages to TVwithThinus, that will see an annual subscription increase of between 1.96% and 6.42% from 1 April 2019.

The monthly subscription fee for MultiChoice's most expensive and cheapest packages will remain unchanged, while there's a price hike for all of the other DStv packages.

The monthly subscription fee for DStv Premium will remain unchanged at R809, and the subscription fee for DStv Easy is unchanged at R29 per month.

The Access Fee of R90 is also being increased to R95 per month that subscribers must pay if they want to use a personal video recorder (PVR) decoder like the DStv Explora.

DStv Family, aimed at the mass market, will see an increase of 6.42% from R249 to R265 per month - the DStv package with the biggest increase, followed by DStv Access that will increase from R99 to R105 - an annual increase from 2018 of 6.06%.

The monthly price of DStv Compact Plus will increase by 1.96% from R509 to R519 per month.

The percentage increase of all of the DStv packages this year is lower than the percentage increase from 2017 to 2018, except for DStv Access that will see a 6.06% increase whereas the price remained unchanged last year.

                                      Now       1 April 2019       % increase    2017 - 2018 %
DStv Premium          unchanged - R809
DStv Compact Plus   R509       R519                       1.96%                 4.1%
DStv Compact            R385       R399                       3.63%                5.5%
DStv Family               R249       R265                        6.42%                6%
DStv Access                R99         R105                        6.06%                0%
DStv EasyView        unchanged - R29

Access Fee                   R90         R95

MultiChoice hiking the prices of DStv packages for 2017 from 1 April - but the percentage increase this year is lower than usual.

DStv subscribers in South Africa will again pay more from 1 April with MultiChoice hiking monthly subscription fees for the year.

MultiChoice is telling DStv subscribers that it is trying to keep subscription fees down in South Africa's tough economic climate.

DStv Family subscribers face the biggest price hike: from R219 to R235 - a jump of 7.3%. That is well above the current headline consumer inflation rate of 6.6%.

All the other DStv monthly price hikes are below the current inflation rate.

It's not yet clear by how much M-Net analogue subscribers' monthly subscription fee will increase.

DStv Premium subscribers will have to fork out R789 per month from April for MultiChoice's most expensive service, although it represents an increase of just 3.95% - the smallest increase out of all the packages.

Last year the DStv Premium increase was a massive 8.58%. It's however not surprising that DStv Premium subscribers are getting the smallest percentage increase this year.

The overall percentage of DStv Premium subscribers as part of MultiChoice's total subscribers base has been falling in 2016 and slid from 22% to 18% ((2.24 million subscribers to 2.005 million).

That's according to MultiChoice's results for the 6 months until the end of September 2016.

MultiChoice likely wants to stem or reverse this trend as subscribers have been opting away from the top tier, not seeing it as representing enough value.

DStv Extra subscribers will pay R489 from 1 April 2017 - a 6.53% increase.
The DStv Extra increase was 8% in 2016.

DStv Compact is increasing from R345 to R365, an increase of 5.79%.
The DStv Compact increase was 8.2% in 2016.

The subscription fees of MultiChoice's cheapest two offerings, DStv Access (R99) and DStv EasyView (R29) will remain unchanged.

The monthly access fee (R85), individual rentals for DStv BoxOffice movies (R35) and DStv decoder insurance will also remain unchanged.

Here is how DStv prices for 2017 will increase and the percentage price hike:

                                    2016      1 April 2017
DStv Premium            R759       R789               3.95%
DStv Extra                  R459       R489               6.53%
DStv Compact            R345       R365               5.79%
DStv Family               R219       R235               7.3%
DStv Access               R99         R99
DStv EasyView          R29         R29

Add-on packages
DStv Indian                 R340       R360               5.88%
DStv Indian add          R220        R229              4.09%
DStv Portuguesa         R445        R465              4.49%
DStv Portuguesa add   R220       R229              4.09%


Two contributing factors
Two things are likely influencing MultiChoice's smaller than usual annual DStv price hike.

Firstly, the South African rand that took an incredible beating in 2016 is recovering and on a strengthening trend.

Since the same time last year the South African rand has strengthen almost 25% against the American dollar.

MultiChoice and M-Net must buy foreign content like American shows and films and broadcasting rights for sports in dollar and pay certain channels on the DStv platform as part of carriage deals in the global currency.

Secondly a flurry of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) players are pecking around MultiChoice's pay-TV nest, will all the recent entrants looking to steal an egg or two where they can.

Netflix, friendly foil ShowMax from same-stable Naspers, Amazon's Prime Video, ONTAPtv.com from China's PCCW Global, PrideTV and other streamers now all offer local South African watch-and-gorge services.

TOLDJA! Discovery Networks' Discovery World channel on DStv abruptly yanked off, replaced by DStv Family on another channel number.

A day after TVwithThinus reported that Discovery Networks' Discovery World (DStv 187) channel looks like a gonner on DStv, the channel is indeed abruptly going to go dark and being taken away within days at the end of March, replaced with Discovery Family on another DStv channel number.

Neither MultiChoice nor Discovery Networks International (DNI) bothered to give DStv subscribers and Discovery World viewers any reasons or explanation in a statement as to why the Discovery World channel is being removed, 6 years after it was added in February 2010.

Asked why Discovery World is being removed, DNI tells TVwithThinus that "at Discovery Networks we are constantly looking at market trends and viewer preferences, with the goal of best catering to the needs of our audiences. In Africa we have identified a high demand for family edutainment programming and are therefore adding Discovery Family to our DStv portfolio".

Instead of however growing the Discovery channel offering on MultiChoice, the Discovery World channel is being replaced by Discovery Family on a new channel number of 136 from 31 March.

Discovery's TLC Entertainment is also being moved from channel 172 to channel 135 on DStv to sit alongside the DStv Family channel.

DStv Family is a meshing of content already largely available on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, making it strange that Discovery didn't rather add the premium HD channel Velocity aimed at male viewers, or Discovery Life - channels that's more different from the already existing content offering from Discovery.

The sudden channel swop leaves Discovery with still 6 channels in South Africa: Discovery Channel (DStv 121), TLC Entertainment, Animal Planet (DStv 183) Discovery Science (StarSat 320), ID Xtra (DStv 171 / StarSat 223) and now Discovery Family replacing Discovery World.

Earlier this year MultiChoice told the media that the satellite pay-TV platform will still add new TV channels, but not at the same roll-out pace as before, and has moved to now rather focus on working with channel and content providers to strengthen their existing content and channel offerings already available on the DStv service like Discovery, BBC Worldwide, M-Net and others.

Discovery World as a channel was noticeably missing from Discovery Networks CEEMEA's upfront for 2016 in November last year.

When TVwithThinus specifically then asked whether Discovery World is being cancelled and removed from DStv in 2015, Discovery refused to give a straight answer and said "we wanted to concentrate the story on less channels this year to increase the impact on the audience".

It's now clear that Discovery World's termination on DStv was indeed already then in the works.

Earlier this week Discovery Networks CEEMEA was asked again directly whether Discovery World is being removed, and again Discovery Networks International wasn't willing to be truthful in its response.

MultiChoice, asked on Tuesday whether Discovery World is being dumped on DStv, said it will make the necessary announcements if any changes are made to channels.

Asked on Thursday why Discovery World is being taken away from DStv subscribers, MultiChoice didn't immediately respond to a media enquiry.

In a statement however announcing the Discovery World with Discovery Family channel replacement, Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice South Africa's head of content says "Discovery Family and TLC will provide the perfect complement that'll strengthen our DStv entertainment selection".

"Discovery Family is designed for family viewing, bringing great programming that entertains and educates."

Discovery Family will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Extra, DStv Compact and DStv Family subscribers in South Africa - the same as the discontinued Discovery World.

Why MultiChoice is growing the existing DStv family with the new DStv Family bouquet.

MultiChoice now has a new bouquet, DStv Family, available for subscribers. I asked the South African pay-TV platform why it decided to grow the pay-TV family of existing bouquets with a new addition to the family in the form of DStv Family.

MultiChoice says DStv Family will eventually replace the two DStv Select bouquets, that DStv tries to create bouquets which offers the best possible value for money, and explains why the bouquet is called DStv Family.

Why did MultiChoice decide to launch a new bouquet now, and will it eventually replace one of the existing ones or is it expanding to overall range?

MultiChoice is committed to ensure our customers continue to receive great entertainment at good value for money. Over the last few months, we have spoken to many DStv Select customers as part of research into the bouquet. DStv Family is based on feedback from these customers. For now, DStv Family is an addition to our range of packs but over time the DStv Select 1 and DStv Select 2 packs will be phased out.  

In terms of the channels included, how does MultiChoice go about deciding what channels to put into or include into a specific bouquet, for DStv Family, how long did this process take and what are some of the considerations of putting it together?

MultiChoice scans all available premium and niche channels, locally and abroad. We use market research and analysis of the pay-television marketplace to determine the nature and content mix of the channels. Once we have signed licence agreements with channels, we package these into our bouquets.

Our packs are put together to offer our customers the best possible entertainment at good value for money. Over the last few months, we have spoken to many DStv Select customers as part of research into the pack. DStv Family is based on feedback from these customers.

Why is the new bouquet called DStv Family, it’s the only one with a connotation to a social structure. Is the bouquet geared towards family viewing more than some of the other bouquets? How has MultiChoice decided to position this bouquet in terms of its value proposition or offering?

We have now aligned the naming of our packs with our offering in the rest of Africa.

The bouquet seems very close to DStv Select 1 and DStv Select 2 and DStv Compact. DStv Compact is clearly a big winner so DStv Family doesn't seem as if it would be "competition" for that bouquet, but wouldn't DStv Family now be "competition" for DStv Select 1 and DStv Select 2?

MultiChoice research shows there is a market opportunity at the R175/month price point. We believe that DStv Family will lead to strong growth in subscriber numbers at this price point.

Given the price point and channel selection of DStv Family, if one looks as when DStv Lite was introduced, does MultiChoice see this as a new "market segment" (a group of possible consumers who are not yet and could become subscribers? If so, how would you describe this market segment?

Our focus remains on offering all South Africans great entertainment at good value for money. We already have an offering at the R175 price point in DStv Select 1 and DStv Select 2. DStv Family is an enhancement of the offering at this price point, based on the research we conducted amongst DStv Select customers.