After extensive piloting, MTN South Africa has launched FrontRow Services, a video-on-demand (VOD) platform that provides customers with access to movies and television shows for R179/month.

MTN FrontRow Services is made up of FrontRow Club and FrontRow Premiere. FrontRow Club provides access to a catalogue of entertainment, including movies, music, documentaries and children’s programming. Consumers must also pay for any data they consume while watching the programming on offer.

The mobile operator is also offering FrontRow Premiere, which allows consumers to rent older movies for R15 each and the latest titles for R27 each. Subscription to FrontRow Club is a prerequisite to accessing FrontRow Premiere.

The service is similar to Vidi, the VOD platform launched earlier this year by Times Media Group. Vidi’s streaming subscription service costs R149/month, while its movie rentals also fetch between R15 and R27.

Those wanting data with their FrontRow Club subscriptions can opt for a 10GB data bundle to be included, although this pushes the price up to R399/month.

Data plans can only be used to consume content from FrontRow Services, MTN says. All other data usage will be charged for at normal rates. 10GB of MTN FrontRow Streaming Service bundles will cost R300 when bought standalone, while 20GB will cost R450 and 50GB will fetch R800.

The basic subscription of R179/month will go up to R199/month at the end of March. The 10GB bundle option will increase in price to R499/month at the same time. This is not much cheaper than MultiChoice’s top-end DStv Premium bouquet, which costs R665/month and does not require consumers to buy data to view programming.

MTN prepaid and post-paid customers — including those on hybrid contracts — can sign up for FrontRow Services. Customers can access content from up to five devices, though they can only stream on one at a time.

“Customers who have subscribed to MTN FrontRow Club can view content via their Internet browser, or through their Android or iOS mobile devices,” MTN says in a statement.