MultiChoice South Africa yesterday announced that it will increase DStv subscriptions in South Africa effective 1 April 2014. The increases will affect the major bouquets – Premium, Extra, Compact, Family and Select.
Unfortunately, the increases will not remain south of the Limpompo. MultiChoice Zimbabwe has confirmed to Techzim that local DStv subscribers will be expected to pay more in DStv subscriptions come April. The increases are across six local bouquets including the popular Compact bouquet. The company will start running press ads within the next few days advising customers of the new subscription fees.
Here’s the full statement from MultiChoice Zimbabwe and the new DStv subscriptions.
MultiChoice will implement an annual subscription price increase on DStv subscriptions from 1 April. This is an increase necessitated by business operational costs such include satellite costs, channel costs and operational costs.
In determining the price increase MultiChoice takes into account many factors including the impact on the subscriber, current inflation, and efficiencies effected within the company that may offset the necessity for a price increase. Unfortunately, it is necessary to implement a price increases on an annual basis due to rising costs to the business. Our pricing reflects the cost of doing business and the necessary return on capital in order to ensure a world class, reliable and sustainable pay television service.
As MultiChoice we are continuously improving and growing our services and product offerings, providing our subscribers with the best home entertainment and viewer experience supported by great subscriber management services.
New DStv subscription schedule:
The DStv subscriptions in South Africa increased by an average of 6% across all bouquets. The Compact and Premium bouquets have the largest increases of 7.27% and 6.4% respectively. The rest (Xtra, Family and Select) have increases under 6%. Easy View and Access subscriptions remain unchanged.
By comparison, the local DStv Subscription increases are lower than those in South Africa. Zimbabwe’s Compact increased by 3.3% and the our local premium package increased by 2.6%. However it’s important to note that our local bouquets have fewer programs to those available to South African subscribers.
Access bouquet remains unchanged at $10. This means former GOtv subcribers who had just started to swap their GOtv decoders for DStv decoders won’t be affected by theses increases unless they decide not to remain with the Access bouquet as offered by MultiChoice Zimbabwe.
23 comments
if only there was an increase in value,, seriously some channels that we pay for are not worth watching,,
monopoly
This is not right for Multichoice to do that. SA can increase because the rand fell against the US dollar. What reasoning drives there increase by Multichoice? Daylight robbery!
George, its $2! if it were a raise of say $10-$30 then it would be worth making a noise about!
I am sure if it was ONLY $2, then MCZim would not have increased the fees. But $2 is a big deal to the business and hence it becomes a big deal to the viewer. Will not cry foul if bread went up by $2? It is after all ONLY $2! 😀
well with any business, when your supplier cost goes up, your margin goes down. to sort that out, you increase your selling price. no?
point is, if you are already paying $70+ for TV a month, and are now complaining of a $2 price change, then you surely need to work on your fundamentals
you are a mad man!!!!if your logic is like this then surely you have no idea on how to manage funds.any price increase should be justified..and is a push on inflation.the fact that you are now dedicating that extra portion to subscription ,means there is a forgone opportunity ,whether it could have been buying maheu,or dvd disc..its cascades down wards..in south africa they strike to get 20rand increase..please be sane or dont comment everything has a knock on effect
kungobirana cash chete apa. in SA we can accept coz rand lost value against dollar. ko muzim do they have any justification
@Allen
2 dollars is a lot of money considering that you pay it every month, br let us cry 2gether
I dumped DSTV in December. For those with good internet access, try Amazon Prime/Netflix/Hulu. No sport though…. 🙁
I have also joined Netflix. I’m now waiting for my broadband provider to fire up the engines so that my Xbox can stream live and watch unlimited movies at just $10/month.
how does this netflix thing work
This is an annual increase meaning we will have an increase every year. I remember a two dollar increase in 2013 and another in 2012. If the cost of doing business is getting higher Multichoice zim needs to cut costs like every other business is doing. They cannot simply keep passing it on to the consumer.
HaHaHa it’s not just $2 i remember a time about 10 years ago i was paying $47 for DSTV premium. $2 yes but watch it give it 5years and we see how much you’ll be paying
Multichoice is expensive for nothing compare the premium Bouqet of MultiChoice to those of Astro (Asia) ,Foxtel (Australia), Telstra (Australia), Optus (Australia), DirecTV (USA+Canada), SKY (UK) etc these guys buy from the same Channel and content providers what are they talking about, Maybe if it were in South Africa we i would understand but in Zimbabwe there is no excgange rate to worry about so where is the increase coming from. Intelsat has not inreased its Satellite access fees for years
with DSTV repeats and everything we badly need competitor to offer value pay TV
We are entitled to complain because we are getting nothing from Multichoice my friend so the increases are not justified. If you have a basic understanding of simple economics, their costs did not rise in US$ terms. They are justified in increasing in Rands. Inga even mahwindi have grasped this fall in the value of the Rand so I expect one who works really hard to be well versed and guard his earnings against unscrupulous service providers who are wont to rent-seeking practises.
Where the hwindis used to give us R4 as change, have increased that to R5 and I expect Multichoice to grasp this! It’s not “just” $2 folks.
Every cent has to be accounted for. Nguva yeku burner yakapfuura.
zol fibre is here.. others are watching cable tv in the northern suburbs already.. multichoice zim arrogant and am moving to cable shortly…
been a dstv premium bouquet payer for several years and the ill treatment i got from multichoice zim a month ago has me looking for an alternative to these arrogant people..truly usd87 a month to be treated like trash is no good.. thanks for the cable TV info am following suit soonest..
justify dstv premium at usd85in zim vs R665 in south africa??? south africa has more channels..come on dont rob us
whatever happened to the”value for money” addage. we are sick and tired of your repears dstv plz…
whatever happened to the”value for money” addage. we are sick and tired of your repeats dstv plz…
Re: Multichoice Zimbabwe Price increase w.e.f. 1 April 2016
Whilst the price increase of 2.7% ($75 to $77) for the premium bouquet is not exorbitant, Multichoice Zimbabwe has, in its wisdom, decided to proceed, as a result of its monopoly in this market.
I run a small business in a highly competitive industry and rather than increase my prices, have had to reduce them, in the last few years, to remain in business.
Have the learned directors/management not heard of price elasticity of demand? I would not be at all surprised if revenue declines with subscribers deciding not to renew on principle or affordability.
Monopolies encourage greed & I look forward to the implementation of competition plans to have this monopoly broken. There are already alternative viewing options available via the internet.
Ken Spencer