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MultiChoice, the parent company of DStv, will now be launching its stand-alone streaming version of its DStv pay-TV service by March 2020 as it expects to have resolved all technical issues and beta-test its new service touted as “dishless DStv”. The pay-TV giant had planned to launch the service by the end of 2019 but technical challenges were not fully resolved, said a spokesman for the company. The increasing spread with uptake of broadband in many of its markets including Nigeria and the growing popularity of Netflix and Amazon Video have meant that MultiChoice would have to expedite its plans to fully deploy the ‘internet’ version of DStv.
Video streaming service has been part of MultiChoice’s offering for several years, but access is still tied to a DTH subscription. The plan to raise its game key into the overall strategy to retain and capture new pay-TV subscribers in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa as broadband internet picks across the continent.
According to CEO of MultiChoice’s Connected Video division, Niclas Ekdahl, because the company has made significant progress in developing the use of broadband connections rather than satellites, it plans to leverage the market on broadband-focused services as the technology improves.
He said MultiChoice plans to do proper user testing in a real live environment before fully launching the new product by 2020.
