It's 2021. After MultiChoice's latest price hike has DStv become too expensive? A TV expert unpacks the questions that you should actually be asking.

by Thinus Ferreira

After MultiChoice announced it's latest price hike that will start April 2021 has DStv become too expensive? What is DStv doing wrong and right? And is it offering value for money? I asked a TV expert to help you to decide.

MultiChoice has announced its annual DStv price hike for 2021 that will come into effect from April 2021 with Simon Camerer, MultiChoice Group chief operating officer (COO), who said that MultiChoice is doing 2021 price increases below inflation and that "on a weighted average basis, you're looking at a 2.4% increase".

However, it has since also come to light that DStv's most loyal subscribers - legacy M-Net subscribers  - are getting a massive 11.49% price hike from April 2021 - far larger than inflation. 

From April DStv Premium subscribers will pay R829, DStv Compact Plus will pay R539, DStv Compact will cost R409, DStv Family subscribers will pay R295, and DStv Access will increase to R115. 

The DStv Access fee increases to R105 and a DStv BoxOffice rentals will now cost R40.

With DStv Premium costing R829 per month from April, it's now possible for video content consumers to build their own "connected-home home-made" TV bundle that would actually be cheaper.

In South Africa a DStv Premium subscriber can - for the same amount of money and with change left for some popcorn - now get an Openserve uncapped 10 Mbps fibre line from an internet service provider (ISP) like Telkom for R399 per month, and subscribe to Netflix South Africa (R99), Amazon Prime Video (R88.39), Showmax (R99) and even Apple TV+ (R85) for a combined bundle-cost of R770.39.

Is MultiChoice therefore pricing itself out of the market? Has DStv become too expensive? What is the Randburg-based pay-TV operator doing wrong and what is DStv doing right? 

TVwithThinus asked the TV expert Tashi Tagg, editor of TVSA, these questions and for some insight to help South African consumers navigate the increasingly tricky and treacherous pay-TV and video streaming service waters.

So, first up, the popular question-statement heard around the braai and dinner tables: Has DStv become too expensive?

"What's affordable for some is not affordable for others, what's expensive for some is not expensive for others? So, the idea of saying 'DStv, is it too expensive' - what are you comparing it to?" says Tashi.

"People have to pay for their entertainment just like you have to pay for anything else - you have to. And it's very important for the entertainment industry that people do pay."

"So this idea of 'what is too expensive' is a question that is actually impossible to answer as an individual because it really does depend on your individual budget and also what it is that someone wants to get out of their entertainment."

"You can't just say 'oh that is too expensive'. In our current economic climate in South Africa everything is expensive! In terms of the DStv Premium price, the right and better question to ask is: 'Are you getting enough from your pay-TV subscription that keeps you happy?" says Tashi Tagg.

"Have you got enough to watch? Is your PVR full? Do you want sports? Is it the case that you can't watch what you get on DStv anywhere else? Then no, it's not expensive. If you find that there's nothing on DStv, well then it's a waste of money."

Time to reinvent DStv packages

Asked for what she thinks MultiChoice is doing wrong, Tashi says "I've always thought that this multiple division of various DStv packages is a problem for numerous reasons".

"Number one, it's confusing. Number two, when people sign up for a specific DStv package they're never sure if MultiChoice and M-Net will keep a show on the channels available on that package or not."

"Number three, if you don't have DStv Premium you always feel like you're missing out on something which isn't nice because you don't want to be paying and be left feeling like you don't have everything."

"An example of this is like what happened with The Real Housewives of Durban recently that M-Net first announced as coming to 1Magic and then the announcement a week later that it's now only on Showmax for which you need to pay for data to watch it."

"I think this constant changing of shows from package to package, channel to channel, and the multiple packages - I think it is time to reinvent that," she says. "For me, the position would be to really simplify the DStv packages."

"MultiChoice needs to make a general entertainment package, and then a sports add-on," she suggests.

"So you pay the big bucks if you want that SuperSport and ESPN sports, and everybody pays the same for the entertainment package. That way everybody wins because it means that everybody can watch the shows on DStv."

"In this day and age of social media where some people are watching one season of a show on one channel, and some people are watching another older season on another channel and now you're all talking about it - it doesn't fit."

"The way in which the packages are structured is what MultiChoice is doing wrong - it could be overhauled to be made much simpler products," Tashi says.

"Just look at what happens when higher-tiered TV channels are made available for a specific period to lower packages like DStv Family or whatever - I mean the ratings soar. There's like a boom in DStv viewership and it just makes for a very exciting environment when those numbers come out and there are so many more DStv subscribers watching the same content together at the same time".

PVR perfection 

About what's good about MultiChoice and what DStv is doing right, Tashi Tagg says that the personal video recorder (PVR) is "really good".

"It's good, it's good - the ability to record, the fact that you don't need to have any internet for it, the fact that you have the advantage of linear TV watching and that you can watch as you want".

She also says that "DStv Catch Up is great - the fact that you can watch on-demand content on any device if you do want to use your data to watch - that's good. I think that that technology is really unique and really very valuable. For a real TV lover it's really, really valuable". 

TVwithThinus did an interview request and asked MultiChoice if it is possible to talk to Simon Camerer about DStv's latest price increases after he did interviews with three media outlets about the latest round of price hikes. 

Benedict Maaga, MultiChoice spokesperson said that Simon Camerer is unfortunately not available at this time for an interview.

ALSO READ: Greedy MultiChoice 'doesn't get it' that DStv has become too expensive says independent analyst.

ALSO READ: 'Fleeced' loyal legacy M-Net subscribers angry at MultiChoice's shocking 11.49% price hike for M-Net GOtv from April 2021: 'This increase in these Covid-19 times is outrageous'.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice's 2021 price hike: Here is what you will be paying for DStv from April 2021 in South Africa.

TV critic's notebook: Nelson Mandela's passing one year later - South Africa's TV critics reflect on when they heard the news, and what they did next.

It was exactly a year ago that Nelson Mandela passed away - the news coming as South Africa's TV critics and writers, the journalists and editors who cover television, all gathered in Johannesburg from across the country, not far away from Madiba's Houghton home, for the SABC's Summer TV content preview screening.

Midway through the SABC's Summer TV content preview screening at around 20:00 the atmosphere suddenly started to change as a disturbed restlessness invaded the gathering of journalists from Johannesburg and those from Cape Town and Durban who flew in. 

Whispers started spreading through the press corps. News, again, from colleagues and media friends filtering through - nothing confirmed and the public still in the dark - that Madiba is definitely not well. Really serious this time.

As the SABC press preview ended, journalists and TV critics rushed back to the Protea Wanderers hotel where everyone as part of the media contingent stayed just as president Jacob Zuma appeared on television to announce to the nation Madiba's passing.

This week I spoke with some of South Africa's prominent TV critics and entertainment journalists about that night, what they felt, how they remember it, and what they did next. This is their story.

"When I was there, I felt very close to it all because of physically being there," says Tashi Tagg in Cape Town, editor-in-chief of South Africa's authoritative TV portal, TVSA.

"We decided to simply run with the greatest Madiba TV moments and we chose only to do that because we felt that that made a very bold and emotional statement."

"The one thing that I did do, was that I felt very 'upset' in my hotel room by myself. I went downstairs and I went outside, and then came back in again. But that is how I responded. I did the story, TVSA put it up and then I just felt really emotional."

"The days after it was a case of remaining calm. We knew there was going to be a lot of info and you have to try and get all the TV channel changes and programming out as quickly as possible. Our strategy was to give people the most important stuff happening on television and the programming that was accessible to as many people as possible," says Tashi Tagg.

"We covered extensively what was happening on the SABC channels because that everyone can see. That was really the strategy and it actually worked quite well because I didn't feel overwhelmed by it."

Veteran entertainment reporter Deli Mncwabe from the Izoleswe newspaper in Durban says she still gets goosebumps thinking about the events of a year ago.

"I still feel exactly how I felt when I heard it. I saw it on Twitter. That there was something wrong at his home. We were all just a couple of minutes away from Madiba's home."

"Then I called one of my colleagues who confirmed and said there is definitely something wrong; something is happening since 16:30 in the afternoon.You could feel the mood changing. Then we all saw Debora Patta's tweet at around 19:00 saying 'we are waiting for confirmation from the president.' That is when we all knew: Something is wrong."

"Meanwhile the SABC had musical acts singing. Nobody could concentrate on the music. All of us the journalists were suddenly focused on something else, trying to find out more and what is happening. We are here, 5 minutes' drive away from one of the biggest news events about to happen."

"Then we took our shuttle picking us up from the SABC press event to take us back to the hotel and we asked the driver to please drive us to Mandela's home - that's when we ran into the police blocking the road. At that moment I knew: Mandela is really gone."

"I still cannot really describe how I felt. Especially now. It's hard," says Deli Mncwabe. 

Our of the whole group of TV critics and entertainment reporters attending the preview, she instantly adapted to the breaking news, instructed the driver to go as close as possible to the scene, and later returned after the rest were dropped off at the hotel.

"It was just my instinct. My mom is a Mandela, but in a long line of ancestry, but there is that connection. Something just told me 'go' - call it journalistic instinct."

"I went back to my room just like all the rest of us. I started watching TV, checking the news feeds and Twitter. I called my boss. Watching television, there was nothing yet there. I called people saying 'lets try and find a way to go back to his home to find out what is happening."

"I thought lets just take a cab. I want a cab to drop me near Mandela's house. Then there was a couple in the hotel, I heard then saying they also want to go there. So I instantly got in the same cab with them and went."

"When we got there people were started to mass at the corner of the street. Nobody knew anything yet but the crowds were growing. Candles. Singing. And then I called dad, my dad was asleep. I called a friend of mine, he was asleep as well. I thought: 'I'm one of the only ones who knew about this now but South Africa will wake up tomorrow to a sad day."

"After a while I went back to the hotel and immediately started writing for the Saturday edition," says Deli Mncwabe.

"The days following it was very hard. Seeing him so often on television, to every single South African he's become like a real family member. You have this special bond. Not to mention he's my role model. The following days were really tough."

"I had to write, I had to go outside my comfort zone. I had to do hard news, it was such a big news story. But with the help of my boss I succeeded. That's why I value our bosses' reaction, response, support. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have survived that week," says Deli Mncwabe.

Veteran entertainment journalist Munya Vomo, senior reporter at Star Tonight in Johannesburg, wasn't at the SABC Summer TV press screening that Thursday night - he has a surprising story.

"It will sound as if it scripted, but what is interesting about my story is that I didn't go to the SABC preview. I had gone the movies. And believe it or not, we went to watch Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom at Cresta."

"I can tell you that when I got home after the 20:00 movie around 22:00 I switch the TV on and president Jacob Zuma was on. I couldn't believe it. I just came from watching this movie, and then the announcement of Nelson Mandela's death."

Munya Vomo says the following days meant a lot of additional work. "What I appreciated when I joined the company was that there was already a dossier, a Mandela dossier. When you're been in the news business for a while you know how to plan in advance for several things."

"These claims of his death kept happening over the years. This is a huge figure. If as a media outlet you didn't have a plan and a folder you wouldn't be able to comprehensively cover it all - from the days of him as a little boy, the boxing, his lawyer days, escaping the country, coming back, incarceration, all those things."

"Coming to trying to adapt to make it work, for the time when it happened, I remember calling Johnny Clegg the next day."

"He also had a very interesting relationship with Nelson Mandela, telling me his side of the story and a fun Q&A where he would give me assumptions of what would Madiba do if he was in Johnny Clegg's band, if he got to his house what would he cook for him, if he was to box any boxer who ever lived who would it be and why. All those kinds of things."

"It was a lot of lot of work, yes, but because we pre-planned this whole thing, the documented stuff helped us a lot. It was big. You couldn't ignore it. It was all everybody talked about," says Munya Vomo.

BREAKING. DStv, M-Net and e.tv follows the SABC and also ban the Nando's 'Diversity' TV commercial with a message about xenophobia.

MultiChoice's DStv, M-Net, as well as e.tv have now all jumped on the bandwagon to ban the latest Nando's TV commercial which has a strong message to South Africans about xenophobia.

DStv, e.tv and M-Net which previously showed the new advert this weekend but which the SABC banned on Thursday, says they will no longer do so.

DStv said the advert "could be deemed offensive" and e.tv said that the commercial "trivialised" xenophobia.

"Whilst we understand that the commercial is a parody, we are not conviced that all our viewers will interpret it in the way intended," Chris Hitchings, CEO of DStv Media Sales tells me. DStv Media Sales is the commercial advertising arm which books TV commercials for MultiChoice's DStv channels and M-Net.

"We have a responsibility not to broadcast material that could be deemed offensive to our viewers and we have exercised our rights in this regard."

E.tv also stopped showing the Nando's ad from Tuesday in which basically all of South Africa's residents disappear, leaving a lone Khoisan who says he was in South Africa first. The ad which adds two new products to Nando's "diverse range" has a strong message against xenophobia and says the company celebrates diversity in all its forms.

"E.tv decided last night to suspend the airing of the Nando's xenophobia" advertisement," says Monde Twala, e.tv's head of channels. "e.tv respects creativity and the channel has previously flighted advertisements that have been rejected by other broadcasters."

"In evaluating the advertisement, e.tv came to the conclusion that it trivialised xenophobia which remains a sensitive and volatile issue in South Africa. e.tv reserves the right, at any time, to withdraw a commercial from the channel on grounds of taste or legality," he says.

I asked William Bird, the director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) on what he's making of this and his thoughts. "I really am quite surprised by the decision," says William Bird. "Obviously they are within their rights to say no, but the question is why?  It seems a rather unusual step to take, to avoid controversy, all the more so given that it has already gone viral on social media."

"Given the issues of xenophobia that we have, I think even if it is an advert that seems to raise a serious issue in its effort to sell us chicken we should err on the side of airing. If it is able to get people to talk about xenophobia even better," says William Bird.

"I find the suggestion that it withheld as it may offend some viewers simply ridiculous for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is clearly a spoof of xenophobic logic taken to extremes with people literally being "proofed" away. Sure it doesn't deal with the nuances of colonialism and land grabs and other questions of identity. But then it is an advert for chicken not a documentary on xenophobia and identity. Secondly to suggest it isn't being shown as it may offend, undermines the media's role - especially the public broadcaster to challenge their audiences."

"Thirdly however, and perhaps most obviously, there are far more adverts that actually do offend viewers that they allow to run - some so bad they offend your intellectual sensibilities, while others plainly reinforce racial and sexual stereotypes," says William Bird. "So the question remains as to why to avoid controversy? Is it perhaps a hangover of The Spear debate?  Either way, one thing which the broadcasters' decision to not broadcast the ad will do, will be to ensure even more people know about it and want to see it," he says.

Tashi Tagg, the noted South African TV critic and pop culture expert from TVSA.co.za tells me that the South African broadcasters' bru-ha-ha to yank Nando's off the air "gives Nando's an edge on the advertising scene".

"It's giving them loads of free advertising and buzz - everyone's talking about them. Their ad is doing well on the internet and they don't have to pay broadcasters to flight it. So its ultimately Nando's who is winning."

Tashi Tagg also says that it gives Nando's "loads of fodder for future campaigns. They can run with the copy: 'Nando's - so spicy ... the broadcasters are too chicken to air our ads," she says.

Below is the full Nando's diversity TV commercial on YouTube where it's gone viral and has amassed more than 220 000 views since Friday when the TV advert was posted.