MultiChoice reveals DStv dishless streaming service: Will cost the same as DStv with a satellite dish, MultiChoice to offer telecom-partnered uncapped data bundled packages.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice on Wednesday did a low-level reveal of its much-hyped, so-called "DStv dishless" streaming service through which DStv subscribers will be able to get access to its pay-TV service without the use of a mounted satellite dish, although only through its DStv app and access costing exactly the same as its existing DStv satellite service.

For over a year MultiChoice has touted that it's working on a "dishless" version of DStv as a video streaming version that would make it possible for DStv subscribers to get access to the same DStv as customers using a wall-mounted satellite dish.

The expectation was that this DStv streaming version would be cheaper since no installation cost, physical dish, cabling, or DStv decoder is needed, but on Wednesday during its 2020 DStv Showcase media presentation MultiChoice during a low-level announcement about its roll-out announced that the streaming version will cost exactly the same and will only work and stream through the DStv app.

MultiChoice didn't announce when its DStv dishless version will become available for sale and sign-up.

MultiChoice said that the DStv app and its DStv dishless service will bring the same DStv content and channels as the existing service, that users can then watch through "any screen of their choice - via Smart TV, browser, mobile phone or gaming console with a consistent high-speed data connection".

MultiChoice said that "DStv residential packages are all available, with the full set of live channels and Catch Up shows. Streaming customers will be able to watch their favourite shows on Catch Up on four devices, with a maximum of two concurrent streams".

MultiChoice said that DStv will soon be partnering with telecommunications and internet service providers to offer bundled data packages in order to give DStv subscribers, using DStv streaming access, uncapped data along with whichever DStv streaming bouquet they are subscribed to for instance DStv Premium, DStv Compact Plus or DStv Compact.

MultiChoice pushes the launch of its new ‘Dishless DStv’ OTT service the first quarter of 2020.

MultiChoice will no longer launch its stand-alone streaming version of its DStv pay-TV service before the end of 2019 as promised but has now pushed the evolving plan out to March 2020 as it irons out technical issues and beta-test its so-called "dishless DStv".

With ongoing broadband growth the "internet" version of DStv is part of MultiChoice's ongoing plans to retain and capture pay-TV subscribers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa who are able to and want to watch premium pay-TV content this way and without a physical installation.

MultiChoice is also trying to combat churn and to compete with the proliferation of global OTT players like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, VIU and others who have entered the South African and African market and are starting to steal DStv subscribers away with more frictionless online offerings.

Currently "DStv dishless" is still a work in progress as MultiChoice has been testing the DStv decoder-less service internally.

The Randburg-based company has been learning and gaining valuable data and user feedback from updates and technical problems with its DStv Now service. DStv Now is currently available to ordinary DStv subscribers as an added-on bundled service.

Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, in mid-May 2018 said that MultiChoice will launch an over-the-top (OTT) version of DStv as a video streaming mirror-service to its existing direct-to-home (DTH) offering that requires the installation of a satellite dish, cabling to a building, as well as a physical set-top box (STB).

Niclas Ekdahl, the CEO of MultiChoice's Connected Video division, at last week's 2019 MultiChoice Content Showcase upfront for the media in Sandton revealed that the launch has been pushed out by a few months and will now no longer happen before the end of this year but has been pushed to the end of the first quarter of 2020.

MultiChoice experienced technical problems in 2019 with the online streaming of popular programming like HBO's Game of Thrones on M-Net and the 2019 Rugby World Cup on SuperSport through DStv Now which raised technical capacity questions about whether it would be possible to launch a "Dishless DStv" version without ongoing technical issues that would negatively impact the user experience.

Niclas Ekdahl hasn't yet revealed the commercial name that MultiChoice might possible use for "Dishless DStv" - for instance DStv Plus, DStv+ or DStv-i - nor pricing, or the way in which this new service will differ from the DTH version of DStv.

Niclas Ekdahl however showed journalists how much the interface and capabilities of DStv Now have already changed over the past few years to develop and make it its own distinct service, with its own look and feel.

DStv Now recently introducing "profiles" and no longer looks like the "satellite DStv" version and which is how it looked like when MultiChoice started this service.