It’s been a long day, and you finally decide to just zone out in front of the television and unwind. You start with your favourite channels and then proceed to lesser favourites in the hope of catching something that you find mildly entertaining. For R529 pm (DSTV premium subscription) and a multitude of channels promising the very best in entertainment, you would expect to find something interesting to watch whenever you switch on the telly. Yet, time and time again, all one finds is a multitude of choice with no real options!
I am certain that I am not alone with the above experience but this is not the forum to discuss such gripes. Rather is it completely relevant to discuss the recent DSTV offering, BoxOffice – but I would like to briefly state my opinion on this new product. BoxOffice is an on-demand movie rental service but it is only available to DSTV’s PVR subscribers. That means that if I wanted to use BoxOffice, I would have to firstly upgrade my decoder and then pay an additional subscription of R65 pm. Only then would I be allowed to rent out the ‘latest’ movies (R25 for a 48 hour loan). It does not take an actuary to ascertain that this makes no financial sense unless of course you are already a PVR subscriber and you happen to find a movie on offer that you meant to watch on circuit but never got around to. As a premium DSTV subscriber, I would expect the latest movies to be on offer with my current bouquet and simple economics dictate that if a movie is popular on BoxOffice, it is going to be a long time before it is available on DSTV.
The reason for this post is the announcement from John Kotsaftis, CEO of DStv online, that BoxOffice, or a service like it will be launched online by the end of 2011 and that it was launched on satellite first due to South Africa’s broadband constraints. This new service will not only be available to DStv subscribers but to all South Africans. Firstly, this is encouraging news. Multichoice believe that by the end of the year, South Africa’s ‘broadband constraints’ would not be as limiting. With the recent announcement of the MTN LTE pilot and the ongoing broadband pricing wars, this is perhaps a fair assumption and I am sure most of us would agree that it’s about time. However, I think DStv may want to take cognisance of one factor before embarking on this venture. Reality.
If broadband prices are reduced considerably, it would still only be economically viable to download encrypted movies if you have an ADSL line. I doubt that cellular data costs would ever drop as low as those offered to ADSL customers, but I would be pleased to be proven wrong in this instance. This implies that the user would have to add the cost of downloading the movie to the price charged by the service provider, and bear in mind that these movies are typically larger than 1 GB. Furthermore lower bandwidth costs and faster speeds could result in many choosing to rather just download movies from international websites (you know the type) thereby saving the subscription fee to the service provider and removing sharing and time restrictions that would be otherwise imposed. I intend to neither justify or condone this option but wish to merely point out there is a strong liklihood of it occurring.
Another point for the brains at DStv to consider is that after paying to watch a movie, most people would be frustrated if they are forced to watch the movie on their Laptop screens. They would therefore need to either have the ability to connect their laptop up to their TV or use a dedicated media player. How this player would have the ability to play the encrypted video is anyone’s guess? The pricing would also have to be very competitive, if the intention is to get people who watch movies at home to suddenly stop going to their DVD store but to rather get a movie from this new service. Seems like a lot more inconvenience for very little (if any) benefit.
Companies at the forefront of this type of offering internationally (Netflix, Blockbuster) do not only focus on streaming VOD (Video on Demand) but have other offerings like DVD by mail delivery. Although recent Netflix pricing changes appear to be encouraging subscribers to use the streaming feature rather than the mail option, this has been met with severe criticism from subscribers. Furthermore whether such a mail delivery system would work in South Africa is debatable, especially if one considers the decision by Amazon to no longer ship goods to SA via the South African Post Office.
Many Apple users already have access to VOD via the US iStore and the cost of hiring a new release is typically $4 with a vast library of other movies available either for sale or for rent at a reduced rate. I cannot see a future where the proposed business model for BoxOffice VOD via broadband makes sense. So for now, I’ll keep watching my blockbusters at the movies (where they can be truly appreciated) and the Discovery channel late at night.
Update: The Undecided Future of My Television
