The rise of video streaming services have put Pay TV service providers in very uncomfortable spots. DStv, owned by MultiChoice, is the biggest Pay TV provider in Africa and the company has been seeing its market share eaten up by services such as Netflix.
MultiChoice knows that streaming services are here to stay and that is why the company has signed a deal with Netflix and Amazon to bring these services to the DStv Explora decoders. This is an interesting move but it makes sense even though MultiChoice considers these its competitors as it owns ShowMax, a video streaming service.
This information was shared in the company’s annual results and should be available in South Africa, at least in the beginning, before rolling out to other markets.
The statement by the company read in part, “Signed deals with Netflix and Amazon to integrate service onto new Explora decoder.” These services will be available in the new DStv Explora but it is not clear when this new decoder will launch. It is also not clear if these services will be available to the current decoders at some point.
“To position the business for the future, leverage the group’s scale and enhance the product ecosystem by providing access to a wider variety of content, the group recently concluded distribution agreements with two major international Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) providers,” MultiChoice said.
DStv has been having a tough time and such measures might keep it going for a long time. Besides the video streaming services, MultiChoice has announced that it has launched field trials of its standalone streaming products. The trials have started in South Africa and depending on the results, we may see it expand to more countries.
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