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TopTV or DSTV or both?
Posted by: OS GIKEN on May 10, 2010
Ever since the 1st word broke some time ago that DSTV will no longer be Telkom's 3rd distant cousin of the Monopoly family, many of us were paying attention. Since we all have DSTV, and since we all complain about the poor quality viewing and the relentless repeats, we somehow have no option, no choice, but to fork out the R499 every single month and feed that same hand that we so often bite! TopTV apparently promises to be a 2nd option, a choice between what we currently have and some differentiation.
If you don't like that, try this:
If you were to take a closer look at TopTV, they came out one gun blazing, not claiming to be the next best thing, not claiming to destroy DSTV's market share, not claiming they can offer a better product, but surprisingly, and according to me, gutlessly, attaching their product as an extension to that of the DSTV product!
"If you don't like the 80+ channels offered by DSTV, then get our offering as well, thus you'll have the best of both worlds!"
You know, Adidas didn't tell its customers to 1st buy Nike and then if they get bored of the Air Force 1 they can opt to purchase the Shell Toe! Obama didn't tell America to 1st vote for Hillary and then if they don't like her, they can vote for him instead! To me it sounds as if TopTV does not believe in its own product offering - which is vitally important in a market as premature as South Africa's!
Take a closer look:
If you were to compare the channels from DSTV to that of TopTV (I know its wrong as I have not seen any TopTV channels yet) you'd be surprised at the resemblance, the same-ness of the content is almost shocking! DSTV has Sony entertainment television which airs some Sony movies now and then if you're lucky. TopTV boasts MGM...now if like me, you know the difference between a Kajee and a banshee, you'll know that MGM made some old ass movies, like cowboy, western type films, and DSTV already caters for that with TCM.
The similarities are too close for me in this regard, but then again, something that looks the same, sounds the same, and offers the same should surely cost the same...this is where TopTV will take the market, even though they did not cater for it. One very important aspect that will surely kill TopTV's chances at being the number 1 choice for viewers will be the sports channels, which I've yet to discover, DSTV has one very important party trick...it has Super Sport and ESPN, which I think is the number 1 reason most people won't go for TopTV!
Future of packaged offerings:
In my mind, the day trading began was when someone wanted something from someone else, they then agreed on trade terms and rules, and then they exchanged goods of mutual value to one another. Bread for herbs, wool for fleece, ox for daughters, but somehow in the past 1 000 odd years, value for one end of the deal has somehow diminished. One party cannot get what he/she wants anymore, you get what you are offered. Pay per View in America is the best model I've seen ever in my lifetime, it has been adopted by many different industries, but sometimes not so successful. You get to pay for what
you want…
Take Pay as you drive, Pay as you go, the same principal, but raped. The fight between Maywether and Mowsley cost $60 on Pay per View...and millions of Americans watched it. What I'm suggesting is, offer Pay per View instances to the viewers and allow us to choose what we want to pay for.
Who, working for DSTV, decided that all those news channels is what all DSTV subscribers want? Some of us want sport and entertainment such as movies etc. and what the brains at DSTV did was package everything together and offer it as the premium package! I'll pay R500 just for the sport and entertainment channels...that's it!
I hope TopTV somehow, somewhere in its strategy decides to overtake DSTV by doing exactly what DSTV is not doing. Sometimes people mistake DSTV's market share for brilliance, for great business acumen, when it’s actually because there's no choice, anything will do other than SABC. A word of advice for TopTV, just do what DSTV is not doing, wait until their Sport contracts expire, and purchase it from under their nose...that's how you'll gain market share in South Africa!
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