The impact of rising satellite and cable TV subscriptions – the equivalent of DStv Premium in the USA – has seen customers opting for online TV.
The ability to make this decision an easy one is thanks to Netflix and other streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, which offer massive catalogues of content at much lower prices than expensive cable and satellite TV.
Locally, TelOne has introduced DEOD offering an alternative and breaking the monopoly of Multichoice. DEOD offers various subscription packages which are available for 30 days, including news, sports, On Demand & the take-all option, DEOD Premium. For those customers who do not wish to subscribe for a month, the programme offers a week/weekend subscription service across all packs.
According to data published by Variety , the number of people in the US who have cancelled pay-TV services will reach 33 million in 2018 – a 32.8% increase over 2017.
The report further stated that the high price of pay-TV is a big reason why this is happening, and the average pay-TV bill in the US was $100 per month.
In Zimbabwe, the situation is not that different.
DStv Premium with the Access Fee is US$72 per month, and a number of subscribers have dropped MultiChoice due to difficulties associated with the payment of DStv.
Netflix has also played a part in the region, following its official launch in SA at the start of 2016. Even MultiChoice has admitted that Netflix is hurting its DStv Premium subscriber numbers.
Netflix's package costs R169 per month in South Africa according to MyBroadband.
The situation is only going to get worse for big cable and satellite TV players, according to international research. While pay-TV numbers are dropping fast, streaming service numbers are booming.
In Netflix's latest results, the company stated it signed up 6.96 million customers in the third quarter of 2018 – bringing its global total to 137.1 million.
What makes this number even more impressive is that people share their Netflix accounts or view as a family or group, which means the number of people actually watching Netflix is much higher.
At the same time, companies like MultiChoice continue to raise subscription prices to their services and show advertising during shows, which Netflix and DEOD does not.
The amount of advertising on pay-TV packages has also increased in recent years, and Nielsen data shows that since 2009, advertisements shown per hour on cable channels have increased from 14:27 to 15:38 minutes.
If this trend continues to flow into Zimbabwe and the establishment of DEOD coming into effect, DStv Premium as a satellite TV package faces incredibly challenging times.
These internal and external factors mean MultiChoice will have to change its path to fight the Netflix and DEOD onslaught.
According to MyBroadband MultiChoice said it has not made a decision as yet about its DStv prices for the new financial year, starting 1 April 2019.
"Our approach is to offer our customers on our different DStv packages as much value for their money as possible," it said.
