Free DStv alternative OpenView HD registers half a million users, activates more than 1,000 households per day

image credit – OpenView HD Facebook page

OpenView HD the service that provides Free To Air (FTA) decoders that show South African channels and some international content has been celebrating some milestones.

It has announced that this month it will be surpassing the half a million users mark thanks to an increase in decoder activations that has been recorded over the past few months.

In March 2016 Openview HD registered 388,000 users, a number which was a jump form the 112,000 users it had activated during the same period in 2015. According to OpenView HD, the current rise in activations has translated to over 1,000 decoder activations on some days.

The latest numbers were shared as part of an announcement on some of the changes it is introducing to its content lineup which include the termination of 4 channels as well as the introduction of a new channel that will go live in early October 2016.

Content on OpenView HD is targeted at the South African market with licensing laws set against broadcast outside South Africa.

However, the FTA decoder has emerged as a popular pay TV alternative in South Africa’s neighbouring countries including Zimbabwe.

As such part of its growth can also be attributed to the huge market that exists beyond the South African border.

With options like DStv proving to be expensive because of monthly subscriptions, a service like OpenView HD which only carries costs for buying the decoder has proved to be popular and can only be expected to add on even more users.