If you were a DStv subscriber and decided to drop them for Netflix, who has been eating into their market share, chances are you have received either an SMS or email from DStv with a “secret deal”.
Whichever method of communication you may have received from the company attempting to lure ex-clients back, the message is the same; from 1 August 2018 to 31 October 2018 if you subscribe to DStv Premium you will only pay R699 instead of the usual R809 per month.
“Shhh! Don’t tell anyone – we have a special offer for you...Not only do you save big – we’ve also got the hottest line-up of local and international award winning series, and only the best sporting action,” reads the company’s email to former clients.
“Plus, you’ll find tons of exclusive binge-worthy series on Showmax – all yours – because Showmax is free with DStv Premium,” the message also states.
This new price, however, only includes the subscription and not the R85 Access Fee which is needed to use PVR functionality and XtraView.
Naspers has released its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2018, which shows a big decline in MultiChoice’s DStv Premium subscribers.
MultiChoice, which operates DStv, had claimed it lost more than 100000 DStv Premium subscribers in its last financial year because of the competition it faces from “over-the-top” (OTT) internet streaming services like Netflix.
MultiChoice SA chief operating officer Mark Rayner believed that OTTs would fundamentally disrupt the pay-TV industry and that The Independent Communications Authority of SA was not paying enough attention to these developments.