Letters: Content is incredibly expensive

Thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns about your DStv service. You’ve raised a number of points, which we would like to address (Multichoice is no choice, Courier November 25).
Choosing your own channels: We try and cater for the various viewing tastes and preference of our over 5,7 million customers, who each have their own set of favourites. While you prefer British shows, others prefer movies and sport, and others like documentaries. That is why we try to offer a wide selection of different types of channels to our customers on all the different packages so everyone in the family can find something they would like to watch.
Our biggest expense when it comes to buying content is the latest international series and sporting rights as­ these come at a hefty price. And on their own, channels are incredibly expensive (especially the latest ones you get to see first). To offset this expense and to keep our services affordable, we spread these costs across our customers by bundling channels into packages. This means that customers actually end up paying less for premium content than if a few customers bore the cost.
Finding something that you would like to watch: There’s a lot of new and fresh content across the DStv channels every week. We’d like to help you find something to watch that appeals to you.
We know that most DStv customers tend to stick to a few favourite channels – surfing between those channels only when looking for something to watch. We encourage you to try one or two new channels.
There are some great British shows available in the next few weeks and we’ve also created a number of tools to help you find something that you would like to watch (or even just find the schedule for M-Net Movies:
On your decoder, go to channel 100 to watch a video loop of this month’s highlights. You can also search for genres, movies A-Z or specific shows. And there is also a TV Guide on your decoder.
On DStv.com, there’s a Series Calendar for lists of new or returning series in the next month and a Movie Calendar showing all the new movies airing across all channels. There are also highlights published on DStv.com.
When you log on to My DStv on DStv.com, you can subscribe to our weekly email newsletters so weekly highlights are conveniently sent directly to your inbox.
We like to hear from our customers – please feel free to let us know if there is something you want to watch that is missing.
MARIETJIE GROENEWALD
Head of Corporate Communication
MultiChoice South Africa
Johannesburg