Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      ‘System offline’ scourge to end, says Schreiber – but industry must pay

      23 June 2025

      Naspers shifts to an AI-first strategy – and it’s paying off

      23 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E3: Behind Takealot’s revenue surge

      23 June 2025

      Letter: South Africa risks missing AI wave while world surges ahead

      23 June 2025

      Prosus profit surges 47% as e-commerce bet pays off

      23 June 2025
    • World

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » News » MultiChoice ‘cannot speak for the poor’

    MultiChoice ‘cannot speak for the poor’

    By Duncan McLeod20 March 2014
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Yunus Carrim
    Yunus Carrim

    MultiChoice “cannot speak for the poor” and “has no mandate from them”. It also can’t speak for consumers, from whom it makes “super profits”.

    That’s the latest broadside directed against MultiChoice by the ministry of communications as the war of words between the Naspers-owned pay-television operator and communications minister Yunus Carrim shows no sign of abating.

    The situation became inflamed at the weekend when MultiChoice took out full-page advertisements in Sunday newspapers accusing Carrim of advancing the “narrow commercial interests” of “certain” broadcasters, in a clear reference to e.tv.

    E.tv and MultiChoice are engaged in a high-stakes battle over whether the set-top boxes that consumers will need to watch digital television when the country switches off analogue broadcasts should contain a control system based on encryption technology. Carrim had been trying to reach a compromise agreement between the warring parties, but that now appears impossible.

    Carrim accused MultiChoice of making claims in its ads that were “astonishingly inaccurate” and said that they served to “substantially weaken the case of those opposed to the government’s policy”.

    He also labelled MultiChoice a bullying monopoly.

    On Wednesday, MultiChoice upped the ante, accusing Carrim of not telling the truth when he claimed that the company and its partners were misrepresenting the situation. It said it was “extremely disappointed at the response to date” and urged him to put the interests of consumers and the poor first.

    “MultiChoice cannot speak for the poor,” Carrim’s spokesman, Siya Qoza, said on Thursday. “It has no mandate from them. It is the poor, after all, who are excluded from watching MultiChoice, including major sports events, over which it has exclusive control.”

    Qoza added that MultiChoice also cannot speak for consumers “from whom it makes its super profits”.

    “If it cares so much for consumers, why does it charge so much for its services and exclude the poor?”

    Qoza says MultiChoice has 98% of the pay-TV market in South Africa and “fears competition”.

    “It is this that explains its position and its sudden ‘concern’ about the plight of the consumers and even the poor. Its representatives have been extremely aggressive in the negotiation process and want to take part to the extent that they get their way,” he says.

    “Many emerging black manufacturers support set-top box control. Others, who don’t, have decided to accept the current government policy,” he adds.

    The National Association of Manufacturers in Electronic Components and and the Association of Community Television South Africa, which were signatories with MultiChoice to the newspaper ads, are “dependent on DStv to differing degrees”. MultiChoice owns DStv.

    Qoza says there is “nothing unique” about government’s policy on set-top box control. “At least 15 other countries are using a set-top box system similar to that in our policy, even if it’s not set out in government policy in those countries. Unlike other African countries using a similar system, we have it in government policy because South Africa has a local electronics manufacturing sector we have to protect and we provide a subsidy for the indigent.”

    Set-top box control has been cabinet policy since 2008, Qoza adds. “It was cabinet that decided on the current policy on 4 December 2013. It was not minister Carrim’s personal choice, as MultiChoice well knows. It’s an insult to suggest that other cabinet members blindly followed minister Carrim like sheep. MultiChoice’s personal attacks on the minister are really a sign of its desperation.

    “The policy is consistent with the ANC’s Mangaung resolutions and other government policies, and will benefit the poor and disadvantaged, who will not be able to afford new digital televisions. It will also, over time, contribute to lowering the cost of pay TV for consumers,” he says.

    Qoza says that despite “MultiChoice’s behaviour, the doors of the facilitation team remain open”.

    “But are they serious about negotiating a consensus? Until now they have not been,” he says.  — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media



    ACT ACT-SA DStv e.tv MultiChoice Namec Naspers Yunus Carrim
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleFree Wi-Fi comes to Cape Town
    Next Article ZATS: Ep 296 – ‘Quarks and pipe dreams’

    Related Posts

    Naspers shifts to an AI-first strategy – and it’s paying off

    23 June 2025

    Prosus profit surges 47% as e-commerce bet pays off

    23 June 2025

    Takealot rides subscription wave to revenue surge

    23 June 2025
    Company News

    IoT connectivity management in South Africa – expert insights

    23 June 2025

    Let’s reimagine Joburg using the power of tech, data and AI

    23 June 2025

    Netstar doubles down on global markets while backing SA growth

    23 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.