Huge channel shake-up at DStv

Premium bouquet customers set to score as MultiChoice takes advantage of additional capacity on the recently launched IS20 satellite. By Duncan McLeod.

Added by Duncan McLeod on 29 August 2012.
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DStv, the satellite pay-TV product owned by Naspers-controlled broadcaster MultiChoice, will launch 13 new channels, including seven new high-definition (HD) channels, on 1 October as it migrates to a new, higher-capacity satellite.

MultiChoice will migrate its DStv services from the IS10 and IS7 satellites to the recently launched, high-capacity IS20 satellite before the end of September, the company says.

Using the newly available capacity on IS20, it will offer six new standard-definition (SD) channels and seven HD channels, bringing the number of HD channels on its premium bouquet to 14.

The additional HD channels include two from NBC Universal, namely Studio Universal and Universal, as well as five M-Net Movie channels.

M-Net will also replace its MM1 and MM2 movie channels and expand it to six movie channels, one premiere and five themed channels: M-Net Movies Premiere, M-Net Movies Action+, M-Net Movies Family, M-Net Movies Comedy, M-Net Movies Drama and Romance, and M-Net Movies Showcase. These channels will all be available in HD.

The IS20 satellite is expected to have a lifespan of about 15 years. It has 24 C-band and 60 Ku-band transponders. MultiChoice will use the Ku band for its direct-to-home television services. The satellite was launched on an Ariane rocket from French Guiana on 2 August.

At the same time as launching new channels, some channel numbers are being moved around to make space for future channels and to group relevant channels together.

General entertainment channels with international content will be located from channel 101 to 143, while general entertainment channels with local content will feature from channel 144 to 169, MultiChoice says.

Documentaries and lifestyle channels will be located from channel 170 to 190 and the free-to-air channels such as SABC and e.tv will be on channels 191 to 195.

The SuperSport channels in HD and SD will be housed from channel 200 onwards.

The changes will happen automatically in the early morning hours of 1 October.

Although some channels are being moved around, HD and SD channels will in future be available on the same channel number. For example, M-Net and M-Net HD will be on channel 101 from 1 October. In other words, M-Net and M-Net HD will be broadcast on the same channel number, namely 101.  — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media

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  • Davebee

    Message to DSTV: WHEN ARE YOUR MARKETING CLOWNS GOING TO REALISE THAT MR. MAN IN THE STREET WANTS HIS OWN CHOICE AND NOT YOURS!!
    When does that Sim card arrive that allows me to select and pay for ONLY the three or four channels I want to see and not your so-called choice of 300 repeats of Nat G. and 400 repeats of Medical Defectives (not a typo)?? WHEN does this simple fact hit home at the Multichoice board room?

  • Daniel

    I wonder what price hikes there will be for those premium “Premium bouquet customers set to score as MultiChoice takes advantage of additional capacity on the recently launched IS20 satellite. By Duncan “

  • http://www.facebook.com/ant.duke Ant Duke

    More movie channels, more repeats. DSTV has arrogantly expanded operations but not consumer choice.

  • http://www.facebook.com/noisymale Pierre Mare

    quite agree with you, I would be a loyal customer if I could select the channels I wanted (even with ad nuaseum re runs) am considering Top Tv but fear it will be 6 of 1 and half dozen of the other, as the SA corporates think we want freedom FROM choice!

  • Fred

    It is mindboggling that DSTV is expanding their channels.Just more repeats !!!!
    I want to pay for what I watch.

  • Rita

    I agree with everyone else we are thinking of suspending sick of repeats

  • qwertydudeza

    Legally?

  • qwertydudeza

    DSTV do an annual inflation increase on 1 Apr, the upgrade has been budgeted for a couple of years now

  • qwertydudeza

    It will cost more to unbundle channels by upto 200%, leaving us public paying more for less. Certain channels will become so expensive and they will no longer be viable.

  • fritz

    yip they are out of hand and the channels we are not going to have anymore dont hear them say anything about that need a new board at mulichoice sick of there bull we pay for them to do as they like (they think) but it sounds like cheap is the order of the day where is all the money going

  • Stephan Van der Merwe

    Very smart numbnuts, Why don’t you just hoist a pirate flag from your home. Think you’re very smart saying this, when in fact you just displayed an IQ of less than 50.

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    Downloading series isn’t illegal in ZA, actually, so long as you don’t use them for personal gain. Movies, music and games piracy is another matter, though. I’d like to add I’m a DSTV subscriber and pay my way for my TV entertainment :)

  • Stephan Van der Merwe

    Yet comments such as those only give the politicians and big corporations more firing power to censor and control the internet.

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    I’m not condoning it, I’m just stating the facts. I found out by emailing SAFACT a while ago and asking them, as I was curious. It’s not like it’s a big secret, if you ask the authorities, they’ll tell you it’s not illegal. It falls under the same laws as taping from the radio or TV onto VHS, as far as I understand it. Nothing new here.

  • TheManWithAPlan

    Hell, If Multichoice is so slow in buying the shows from overseas, it cannot be illegal if its not even know about in SA yet… its like reading CNN or Sky News because our media is not telling us all that happens around the world, simply what they think what we want to read. there cannot be a law against keeping up with the times,
    And it is true that downloading TV series is not illegal, whereas sharing it for your benefit is. the laws around the world are all diffrent, in many countries it is illegal to download but not to share?? there are articals where the portugal government wanted to arrest a civilian for downloading content and the laws would not allow it, because an IP address is simply a service and not an actual person, make sense of that???

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