Canal+ plans to untangle DStv’s bloated offerings

Stephen Grootes interviews Jan Vermeulen, editor at MyBroadband about Canal+'s ambitious plan to simplify DStv’s pricing and product structure and ultimately turn around MultiChoice’s struggling core pay TV business.

Listen to the interview in the audio player at the bottom of the article.

Canal+ Group, the new owner of MultiChoice, plans to overhaul DStv by simplifying its products and pricing as it tries to turn around the struggling pay-TV business.

A key part of the strategy is to fix what it calls its “core offering”, making subscription packages easier to understand and more attractive to customers.

Canal+ says DStv currently has a complicated pricing structure, with too many packages and add-ons.

In South Africa alone, customers face up to 17 different price points depending on whether they use satellite or streaming services.

Monthly subscription costs range from about R30 for the entry-level EasyView package to R979 for DStv Premium on a decoder. The streaming-only Premium option is cheaper at R699 per month.

Canal+ believes this level of complexity is hurting the business and confusing customers.

The group has already started reducing the number of products and services. One major move is shutting down Showmax, with existing users being offered discounted access to DStv Stream as an alternative.

More changes are expected, including renaming and consolidating channels.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Jan Vermeulen, editor at MyBroadband says compared to other subscription services, DStv's offering can seem complicated.

"...certainly when you compare it to say, an Amazon Prime Video, which is one price for the whole thing, and you can only pay one price. Netflix which has three or four packages, depending on the region, it does look awfully complex."

- Jan Vermeulen, editor - MyBroadband

"I don't know what their plan is, but I suspect it's just going to take on a different kind of complexity because for a pay-tv service like DStv it's incredibly difficult to give people a one-size-fits-all package, that also fits all wallets."

- Jan Vermeulen, editor - MyBroadband

"You've got to meet your customer where they are, and it creates a pricing headache for companies in this country. I'm sure they wish they can just charge one price and everybody could afford it."

- Jan Vermeulen, editor - MyBroadband