White is the new black: MultiChoice's next DStv Explora Ultra will be white and likely voice-controlled

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice decided to leak a first look of its next DStv Explora Ultra decoder which will be white - a first-ever in this colour - together with a brand new form factor for its top-end decoder that is another radical departure from previous versions.

The 4th generation DStv Explora Ultra also has a completely redesigned remote control, likely AI voice-controlled, similar to what overseas pay-TV operators have been offering their subscribers the past few years.

Taking its design cues from Sky in the United Kingdom's "Sky Q box" decoder, the new DStv Explora Ultra box doesn't have a market release date yet although it will be rolled out to consumers within months.

MultiChoice included the first look at its latest DStv Explora Ultra decoder in its 2024/2025 half-year financial results documentation for investors. MultiChoice declined to comment on various questions TVwithThinus asked last week about this to-be-released decoder.

The new DStv Explora Ulta decoder unveiling is similar to June 2020 when MultiChoice showed investors in its financial presentation that it was going to add both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as third-party streaming apps to its DStv Explora Ultra, after which it later did so.

The next generation DStv Explora Ultra decoder will be the latest hardware release from MultiChoice and takes the place of the much-hyped DStv Glass - a customised version of Comcast's Sky Glass for South Africa that MultiChoice planned to release here but scuppered because of its worsening financial position.

Initially, Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO in September 2022 announced that DStv Glass - a proprietary smart TV set with a built-in DStv decoder - would launch in South Africa in 2023. 

In May 2023 this was suddenly pushed out by two years.

In June this year Tim Jacobs, MultiChoice chief financial officer (CFO), told me that DStv Glass is dead - one of the victims of the financially stretched pay-TV operator's drastic cost-cutting measures coming as MultiChoice awaits an aggressive buy-out by France's Vivendi SE's Canal+ to help it fight against Netflix's streaming proliferation in Africa.

The latest DStv Explora Ultra decoder is inscribed with a Norman window design on top, a brand design flourish that MultiChoice adopted two years ago. 

The Norman window, in grey, also appears on the right of the decoder front-face and inside it, the word "DStv". 

The words "Ultra decoder" appear on the decoder front-face on the left.

The DStv Explora Ultra does away with the black plastic grate design in exchange for a smooth white plastic surface, a grey bottom-third base, and a thin grey trim around the top border. 

The decoder's form factor is a rectangle with rounded corners, very similar to the Sky Q box. 

Sky has what it calls a Sky Q Booster box, an extender to help with a better and amplified Wifi signal in the home. The new DStv Explora Ultra looks 90% similar to this white box. 

Sky New Zealand's latest new decoder box is now also white and also looks similar - and now also has a white remote control.

The new DStv Explora Ultra is the first white DStv decoder line ever from MultiChoice. 

MultiChoice's previous DStv decoders were black, its first PVR decoder line was metallic silver, and it also made one very rare, golden decoder. 

This 24-carat gold-plated M-Net decoder was made in 1993 to celebrate M-Net's millionth decoder and is part of MultiChoice's corporate museum.

Remote control with voice control

The new DStv Explora Ultra remote control represents a somewhat shocking and eye-popping departure from the "half-banana oval" black shape shipped with DStv decoders up until now, with the next generation remote control switching to white.

The new white remote control has a reduced number of buttons.

The white remote control is very much similar to the design of the Sky Q remote control - even having a dedicated blue button directly underneath the grey circle omni-directional arrows and "Enter" button.

On the Sky Q remote control this blue button is pressed to activate voice control AI and to give voice commands to the decoder like "Find Sky News", "Go to movies", "Tune to channel [channel number]", "What should I watch?",  "Open my recordings", "Take me to Catch Up" and multiple others.

Since MultiChoice and Comcast's Sky are Showmax 2.0 IT partners and worked on DStv Glass until its rollout was abruptly canned, it's clear that MultiChoice decided to go the Sky Q route with its next top-line decoder and remote control design.

While Sky Q has the functionality of pressing the "Q" button on the front-face of the decoder to find a lost remote control that will then beep for30 seconds, it doesn't look like this functionality will be included with the new DStv Explora Ultra that doesn't have a pressable button on the front-face.

Like the existing DStv Explora Ultra (its latest version in this range is 3B), the newest version will allow the recording of hundreds of hours of TV, give access to live linear and on-demand library content, as well as access to other video streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

In its latest half-year financial results MultiChoice said that DStv decoder sales increased 46%.

MultiChoice finally gives DStv subscribers the ‘Watch from Start’ function – but there's a catch

by Thinus Ferreira

While its financial position forced MultiChoice to scrap its announced plans for DStv Glass - a TV set with a built-in decoder based on the UK's Sky Glass - the pay-TV operator is now rolling out some of the functionality that would have been incorporated in that for DStv Stream customers, like "Watch from Start" and cloud recordings.

From Tuesday 12 November DStv Stream will allow viewers to jump back on certain linear TV channels and "rewind" up to 24-hours. 

The Telkom ONE streamer which was taken over by the SABC for its SABC+ streamer was the first to offer this linear roll-back option to users.

The functionality was also meant to become available in DStv Glass, where DStv subscribers would have been able to talk to their TV set to switch to a specific TV channel and to then order "Watch from Start" to see a movie or TV show episode from the beginning that might already have started.

MultiChoice will now also make it possible for DStv Stream users to save live shows to watch within 30 days. Traditional DStv decoders can't do "Watch from Start" or cloud recording.

MultiChoice says the added DStv Stream functionality will become available on 12 November for web users, with gradual updates across iOS, Android, and other platforms.

"With 'Watch from Start' and Cloud PVR, we're giving viewers more control over their viewing experience," says Marc Jury, MultiChoice South Africa CEO.

"We know customers want the freedom to enjoy content on their schedule, and these new features bring the flexibility of streaming to the live TV experience. Our customers can now enjoy the best of both." 

"Watch from Start" won't be available for all DStv linear TV channels but will include several SuperSport channels, M-Net (DStv 101), Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and kykNET (DStv 144).

The cloud recording function allows DStv Stream subscribers save live content, accessible in the "My Stuff" section. According to MultiChoice, both features are set to roll out with automatic updates where possible.

MultiChoice's DStv Stream adds its Watch from Start in preparation for the launch of DStv Glass.

by Thinus Ferreira

Like what has been possible with DStv decoders, MultiChoice has now added "Watch from Start" functionality to its DStv Stream app, making it possible for subscribers to begin watching content that has already started.

The Watch from Start functionality is something that is available in Sky's smart TV known as Sky Glass that works with an internet connection and no need for a mounted satellite dish.

MultiChoice is on track to launch a localised version of Sky Glass, rebranded as DStv Glass, by the end of this year in South Africa which will have to incorporate this function as well, hence its addition to DStv Stream.

Like with traditional DStv decoders where subscribers can drag back the cursor in the buffer bar to go back to the beginning or another point in the timeline, Watch from Start allows users to restart any live event by clicking a button.

According to MultiChoice, the newly added functionality is designed "to provide subscribers with greater control and flexibility over their streaming experience".

MultiChoice says Watch from Start "is a first step in bringing full cloud PVR functionality - recording live events from any device, to watch later - to DStv Stream customers, who could previously only access this if they were a PVR decoder viewer".

The Watch from Start feature is currently available in South Africa and the Rest of Africa on iOS, Android mobile, web, Hisense, tvOS, and most Samsung TVs. MultiChoice says it will be rolling out on other platforms soon.

"Along with this is a new and improved version of the smart TV user interface (UI) including enhancements that have made the app simpler for the customer to use and navigate. These updates have been rolled out on LG, Samsung and Hisense and will also be rolled out to DStv's connected Streama device soon."

Rochani Steenkamp, executive head of DStv Stream Product, says "These features not only improve convenience but also allow our subscribers to enjoy their favourite shows and live events exactly how and when they want".

According to MultiChoice the navigation for mobile has also been reworked to help subscribers with content discovery in the main section of the app.

Daniel Courtenay, DStv Stream executive head, says "These are just the first in a list of innovative improvements on our road map for the year".

MultiChoice pushes launch of Sky's DStv Glass TV out by 2 years.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice has pushed the launch of its DStv Glass out by up to as much as 2 years, with the smart TV set taken from Comcast's Sky in the United Kingdom, which will no longer go on sale this year as originally promised but only between November 2024 and May 2025.

In September 2022, Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, said that the DStv Glass TV set would launch in South Africa in 2023.

On Wednesday, Calvo Mawela, during a virtual recording of MultiChoice's first Capital Markets Day presentation, revealed that the DStv Glass launch date has now been pushed out by between a year and a half, and up to two years.

"We plan to launch DStv Glass in a partnership with Sky in 18 to 24 months," Calvo Mawela said. "We are proud to be launching one of the most innovative television products and most-powerful content aggregation tools globally."

Sky in the United Kingdom which is part of Comcast, introduced Sky Glass in October 2021, and although it contains the word "glass" the product doesn't have a lot of real glass in it - the 4K QLED TV has a 4K Ultra HD Quantum Dot screen with Dolby Atmos and a built-in soundbar at the bottom.

While Sky Glass - which will be branded DStv Glass in South Africa - is available in five different colours and in 43, 55 and 65-inch sizes, it's not yet clear which of these colours and sizes MultiChoice will sell DStv Glass as in South Africa.

MultiChoice says the DStv Glass, similar to Sky Glass, will offer a "world-class streaming aggregation product that will include the collation and search functionality across MultiChoice's own content and third-party apps".

The DStv Glass will also come with voice search, but interestingly the streaming Sky Glass has no storage in the way that a traditional DStv Explora decoder has.

Instead, you press the "+" button on the remote control which adds items to your playlist. The device then grabs the episodes wherever they might be found and then lists them for watching. There's no recording with everything streaming on demand.

ALSO READ: Sky's new Sky Glass raises the pay-TV ceiling with an integrated new smart TV that seamlessly aggregates content everywhere to 'reimagine' the biggest screen in the home.