Why DSTV does not allow you to pick your preferred channels

No one wants to pay for a service they never use and, for someone without even the most fleeting interest in sport, navigating past a dozen sports channels on DSTV can be just as frustrating as scrolling past KykNet is when you don’t speak a word of Afrikaans.

It’s a call many subscribers of the satellite TV giant have been asking for; “Let us choose which channels we pay for, please”, but it seems it’s, so far fallen on deaf ears.

Why won’t DSTV allow you to only pay for the channels you use?

Well, the call hasn’t been ignored completely. Even DSTV’s very top brass is aware of the plea, but as Channel24 reports, CEO Calvin Mawela revealed that they have seen the model – where subscribers pay for channels they actually use – fail elsewhere.

“The model doesn’t work. The model just doesn’t work,” Mawela said.

He cited how – after the model was put into law in Canada – subscribers ended up having to fork out more than they would in the past.

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“Guess what? Today there is no uptake because consumers end up paying more for the same number of TV channels that they’re getting today,” Mawela added.

“In that way we attract a much larger audience and then prices come down. That’s how we do our packaging in order to ensure that we keep prices down, that will attract a bigger audience because we’ve got children, we’ve got sport, you’ve got movies and all other content that we have.”

Mawela said that the call for DSTV to introduce a model where consumers can choose a tailor-made bouquet is largely influenced by the fact that they are not exposed to other markets, where it has actually failed.

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