Gerhard Potgieter

Yesterday rumours surfaced about a posible price increase from multichoice on forum threads on dstv.com aswell as mybroadband.co.za

Threads posted on the dstv forum soon got deleted for no reason at all, which made users more sceptical. Today Multichoice decided to confirm the rumors by making an official post on the dstv forums. Multichoice states that these prices may not be final and could change.

The increases are as follows:

The DStv Premium bouquet will be increasing from R 468.99 to R 499.00.
The DStv Compact bouquet will be increasing from R 199.00 to R 219.00.
The DStv Select bouquet increases are still subject to confirmation.
The DStv North Indian bouquet will be increasing from R 222.75 to R 237.00.
The DStv South Indian bouquet will be increasing from R 168.91 to R 179.70.
The combined DStv North and South Indian bouquet will be increasing from R 391.66 to R 416.70.
The DStv Portuguesa bouquet will be increasing from R 222.75 to R 237.00.
All access fees will be increasing from R 55.00 to R 60.00.

Users have expressed their frustration clearly on the dstv forum about the price increases scheduled for April 2009. Users have requested more information about the price increase as to improved viewing experience and content, all Multichoice had to say was that “This information is highly confidential and strictly on a need to know basis. If I tell you, I’d have to kill you.” and another quote saying the following “In terms of HD channels, I doubt that we’re be launching another channel this year, but we are definitely looking at adding value to the current channel.”.

Multichoice released details about their HDTV and HDTV Decoder price and launch date.

Thursday Multichoice anounced the launch of its High Definition Personal Video Recorder decoder (HD PVR).

Customers whom would like to view HD channels will need a HD PVR decoder aswell as a HD Ready television set. The HD PVR decoder will be available in major retail stores from August 2008 and will launch at a price of R2 499.00 (for a limited time period).

The HD PVR will initially be made available with pre-launch software which does not include all the features for a full suite of interactive applications.  These will be made available as soon as MNet HD channel is launched at the end of August.

Customers won’t need to worry about obtaining this new software as it will be made available via Satalite transmition just like all the other decoder models get their software upgrades.

HD PVR owners will soon be able to link their HD PVR to their current Dual View PVR to enjoy viewing 3 channels at the same time, or to a 1110 decoder to enjoy viewing 2 channels at a sime time for a extra R55pm.

The first HD broacast on the DStv network will be the Beijing Olympic Games from 8 August to 24 August on channel 170.

From 24 August DStv will have a dedicated HD channel offering a mix of series,  movies, sporting action and once-off specials. This channel will be called MNet HD and will offer some of the content in surround sound aswell.