The Twitter hashtag “DStv Must Fall” made it to the top of the SA trends list last week Thursday as viewers complained about “exorbitant prices” and endless repeats. The outcry began after DStv increased their prices at the beginning of April.
And now an online petition has been started by Sfiso J Gwala on the website change.org. He said in launching the petition: "DStv should give SA subscribers a payment break or decrease prices during Covid-19. DStv drops prices for the rest of Africa except South Africa and now this. We're being taken for granted here #DstvMustFall"
The petition comes just a day after MultiChoice announced that shows such as Isibaya and Gomora have run out of new episodes to air as a result of the national lockdown. Shooting has also been halted on productions such as The Queen and The River. These series are both expected to run out of new episodes to flight next month.
Then there is the dilemma that Dstv’s SuperSport channels are currently facing as they do not have any sporting events to flight due to the global impact of the pandemic upon live sport.
Viewers have taken to Twitter to vent their anger saying that they have to pay their full subscription despite no live sport being possible on SuperSport right now.
According to Sowetan Live, for the whole month of May, DStv plans to open more channels for Compact consumers "at no extra cost". These channels include 1Magic, Comedy Central, Africa Magic Urban Movies, Curiosity Stream, History Channel, Nickelodeon, CBeebies, MTV Music and Sky News.
Ntsika Msuthu, PR manager at DStv South Africa, was also quoted as saying, "During this time, we aim to keep our customers entertained with the best local and international content available to us and we are excited that we can give our customers exclusives such as the Somhale's The Union which was dubbed as the wedding extravaganza of the year," says Ntsika Msuthu, PR manager at DStv South Africa.”
It was also reported that in response to the petition MultiChoice spokesperson Benedict Maaga said: "MultiChoice continues to provide an uninterrupted video entertainment subscriptions service with the best available content."
