MultiChoice Group Ltd, a South African TV satellite operator, will soon be adding streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to its Dstv platform, the group has announced. The news comes as the Pay-TV operator continues to show growth in the market, adding roughly another 900,000 DStv and GOtv subscribers over the last financial year. MultiChoice which already has a base of 19.5 million users according to its latest financial results already offers its own subscription-based video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service. Now, the company seems set to add another group of subscribers to its robust base. According to the group, adding these two international streaming services to its existing platform with DStv shows their committment to continue on their mission which they referred to as a “super aggregator” – a tactic used by other pay-tv platforms in the US, UK or New Zealand over the past year. If implemented, existing subscribers will receive access to further streaming services through DStv simply by paying their monthly bill in the local currency for the Netflix and Amazon add-ons. “We have long been a content aggregator, and this is proof of our aggregator model at work – providing simplicity, choice and convenience for our customers,” says Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO. “As our industry evolves, we believe that we are well-positioned to benefit from both worlds – a large, growing Pay-TV market in Africa, as well as an emerging over-the-top (OTT) opportunity, where our own OTT services and aggregation capabilities can drive success.” Speaking to The New Times, Yvonne Mutamba, a MultiChoice subscriber welcomed the news saying “Now, subscribers will not need to have different DStv and Netflix subscriptions.” Additionally, Mutamba who also has a Netflix account said,“ Netflix has been producing African content, which makes it a timely development”. Some of the African content produced by Netflix this year include, Dramas “Queen Sono” and “Blood and Water”, among others. Another subscriber, Jackson Mutunzi said, “This will provide simplicity, choice and convenience to the subscriber.” In my view, he said “This could act as a go-to shop where you pick and choose what you want to watch in a very easy-to-access platform”. he highlighted. In its 2019/2020 financial year, MultiChoice showed a 5% increase in subscriber growth taking its total pay-tv subscriber base to 19.5 million households with South Africa still representing the company’s largest market (8.4 million households) while the rest (11.1 million households) is attributed to other parts of Africa. Details on how the move could affect Multi-Choice’s monthly fee will be announced in the coming weeks, a spokesman said on Wednesday, June 11. On the other hand, Multi-Choice is getting ready to roll-out and launch its as-yet-unnamed “Dstv dishless”, stand-alone Dstv streaming service that will mimic its existing direct-to-Home (DTH) service but without the need for any installation.
