Pay-TV operator MultiChoice has taken the next step forward in an unfolding strategy to provide its content across a range of platforms with its launch on Wednesday of a “free” video-on-demand service for subscribers to its DStv Premium bouquet.

The move comes as the company fends off competition in the entry-level market from On Digital Media’s TopTV and awaits the launch of new satellite and cable pay-TV licensee, Super 5 Media.

The new DStv On Demand service can be accessed with a personal video recorder (PVR) decoder or online through the dstv.com website. DStv On Demand, available with immediate effect, allows subscribers to view television series and sports highlights at any time that is convenient to them.

It launches less than two months after MultiChoice’s fellow Naspers subsidiary, MWeb, came to market with an aggressively priced uncapped broadband Internet service for consumers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the dstv.com on-demand services will initially be available only to ADSL subscribers that use MWeb as their service provider.

The PVR service — available on standard- and high-definition PVR decoder — provides 20 hours of the most popular TV series and sports and magazine shows for up to seven days (or 30 days for some local productions) after broadcast on DStv channels.

DStv On Demand Online, accessed though dstv.com, provides 80 hours a week of content, including blockbuster movies, series, sports, kids’ shows and documentaries.

The content for DStv On Demand online will be hosted by MWeb, which has built a content delivery network for this purpose. But DStv insists that it is not its intention to lock out other Internet service providers.

The network will be open to other ISPs that peer with MWeb. MWeb was simply the first service provider to the party with an uncapped ADSL service that offers the quality of service DStv needs to provide video content online, says MultiChoice SA CEO Nolo Letele (pictured at top).

“We want to have our whole subscriber base receiving this product,” says Letele.

DSTV is negotiating with a number of major service providers to allow their subscribers access to this content, says Jason Probert, DStv Online’s GM for video on demand.

The technical stumbling blocks mean that it may be months before DStv announces agreements with more service providers, he adds.

One requirement is that the company be able to deliver its content to ISPs’ networks without getting billed for the bandwidth it needs. It also wants the ISPs to commit to certain quality of service levels — in other words, not to throttle the pipes delivering the content to their users.

Consumers that subscribe to both DStv Premium and MWeb ADSL will face a number of other restrictions on their use of the service. Users can download or stream the content hosted on the DStv.com website but can view it only through DStv’s own Flash-based media player. That means Apple iPad users are shut out.

File sizes range from about 300MB for an episode of a TV series to about 600MB for a feature film. Streamed files are encoded at 500kbit/s, while downloadable
files are encoded at 700kbit/s.

Mac users will be able to watch streamed content on their computers, but they will
not be able to download video from the DStv portal since downloadable files use the Microsoft Windows digital rights management platform. And users that want to stream content will need a 4Mbit/s ADSL line to have an “optimal experience”, according to MultiChoice.

MultiChoice has secured permission from all but two of the major studios to provide their content online. The pay-TV operator hopes to secure their agreement soon.

DStv On Demand is free to premium subscribers and may, in time, be rolled out to subscribers on other bouquets. — Lance Harris, TechCentral