MultiChoice will launch BoxOffice, its long-anticipated transactional video-on-demand service, on 21 July, the operator of the DStv pay-TV platform has confirmed.

The service will allow DStv subscribers — at least those with personal video recorder decoders — to rent the latest Hollywood movies. Instead of going to a video shop, though, consumers will be able to hire movies, which have been stored on their decoders’ hard drives, from their remote controls.

Details are still sketchy — it’s not known how much movies will cost, how many will be offered at any given time or even how long they can be rented for — but MultiChoice is billing it as SA’s first transactional video-on-demand service.

The launch of the MultiChoice service comes just months before a new competitor is expected to begin offering similar services. TechCentral broke the news earlier this year that VOD:TV, backed by Oscar Dube’s SouthTel Group, was also planning to introduce transactional video-on-demand offerings.

The VOD:TV product will be a combination of transactional and subscription video-on-demand television. — Staff reporter, TechCentral