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So there is this myth that DSTV and Netflix are like Tom and Jerry. Always trying to make each other with DSTV as nimble and crafty Jerry, using his cunning in the form of exclusive deals, as his important EPL deal to deceive anyone who wants to steal his market share.
The story continues that the reason why Netflix is not yet capable of making inroads in Africa, as it happened in the world of development, is because our internet is a drug. If we had a great internet like in the UK and US, all millennials would migrate to the streaming platform and start watching things.
Well, South Africa (a BRICS country) is the closest thing to developing in Africa that we have and they have decently priced internet packages that allow them to have Netflix at cheaper prices than the premium DSTV bouquet. Initial data seemed to show that DSTV was losing premium subscribers to Netflix. In the first quarter of 2018, subscribers launched the DSTV award in hundreds of thousands, according to data published by MyBroadBand.
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The number of DSTV subscribers actually increased in 2018
According to data published late last year by Naspers, the total number of DSTV subscribers in Africa actually grew 14% to reach just under 14 million when compared to the previous year. 7.2 million of these came from South Africa, a figure that increased by almost 300,000 subscribers. Those numbers were back in September 2018 and I would expect the DSTV to add even more numbers in the last two quarters as they are traditionally the two quarters where consumers spend more.
Not all news is good, as Netflix is definitely making an impact on DSTV's business. Despite the increase in subscribers, there was a drop in average revenue per user (ARPU) in the South African market. It seems that people are migrating from the Premium bouquet to the cheaper so they can watch sports on DSTV and watch their favorite shows on Netflix at the same time. That way, they can have the best of both worlds and this is understandable.
DSTV's exclusive rights are saving them for now, but this will not last
It seems that the strength of DSTV is preventing the siege of streaming for the time being thanks to their ignazes exclusive content pits, but this is about to change. The South African Broadcasting Authority (ICASA) is drafting amendments that will break the DSTV sports monopoly in South Africa.
Indeed, similar legislation is being considered by other countries that are offended by the fact that rights holders and DSTV enter into these exclusive agreements covering their countries without consulting them, resulting in DSTV being in essence a monopoly operating over its territory.
DSTV will be fine for long though
As we said in our opening, fast internet remains a problem for most streaming subscribers. Before considering the broadcast, you need at least a 5 Mbps connection and this is not something that many people on the African continent have. In fact, because of fair use and bottleneck policies, you probably need something like ten times faster.
With DSTV all you need is a decoder and a dish. There are no nonsense and you only have to pay a flat rate. The downside is that you lose some control over what you want to watch, but you can mitigate this by using technology like the PVR. In fact, a good internet connection will allow you to access the catch up and Showmax. So DSTV will probably be fine for a long time.
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