Johannesburg - Pay-TV operator MultiChoice has designed a smaller hard drive for the latest DStv Explora in order to make the decoder affordable in the face of a weakening rand.
The company’s group general manager for broadcast technology, Nyiko Shiburi, this week told journalists at the launch of the new DStv Explora that big cost items on the decoders - the processor and the hard drive - were fully imported, thus exposing the company to currency fluctuation risks.
He said the recent weakening of the rand compared with the dollar made the items more expensive.
But Shiburi said MultiChoice had kept its own input costs down by, for instance, designing a streamlined hard drive that was smaller to keep the decoder affordable.
The other components of the decoder are manufactured in East London.
“Our view is that stuff that can be manufactured in South Africa should be manufactured in South Africa. We are proud that the decoder is manufactured in South Africa,” he said on the sidelines of the launch.
Shiburi said as a result of the smaller hard drive, users would record less on their decoders but added that the sheer volume of content available on Catch Up, Catch Up Plus and ShowMax services would make up for the reduction.
“The streamlined version means we can continue to offer all our customers the chance to own an Explora at an affordable price, despite our weakened rand,” Shiburi said.
MultiChoice said the Explora would cost R1 499 “and this price will be fixed until the end of 2017”.
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