DStv (Digital Satellite Television) is MultiChoice's digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995, providing various bouquets offering general entertainment, movies, lifestyle & culture, sport, documentaries, news & commerce, children, music, religion and consumer channels to MultiChoice subscribers. DStv has around 8 million subscribers, with the majority being in South Africa and Nigeria. These two markets are considered to be the most important markets for DStv, although markets such as Kenya, Ghana, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mauritius and Tanzania, though not having as many subscribers, are also a focus point for DStv.
1986, Pay-television came to South Africa when an analogue, single-channel service, M-Net, was launched by Naspers. For almost seven years, all M-Net's operations were handled by a single company.
1993, Naspers created a subsidiary company, Multichoice, which was to handle the business arm of M-Net, such as decoder sales, subscriber services and account management.
1995, Multichoice announced that it was launching a new digital, satellite service in South Africa and, on 6 October 1995, DStv was officially activated to subscribers. The original video channel bouquet consisted of 17 channels: M-Net, MGM Channel, Turner Classic Movies, TNT Sci-Fi Universal, SuperSport, ESPN, SelecTV, Travel Channel, KTV, Cartoon Network, BBC World News, CNN International, Sky News, Rhema Network, MTV, VH1 and TV5Monde.
2000, Launch of W4 Eutelsat satellite with Ku-band services to sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.
2001, Launch of Indian and Portuguese bouquet.
2002, Launch of Interactive Television.
2003, Dual View decoder launched.
2005, The DStv PVR decoder and DStv Compact is launched. DStv Premium subscribers in South Africa cross the 1 million mark.
2006, MultiChoice launches BBBEE Share Scheme, Phuthuma Nathi.
2007, Channel Shuffle on 1 October, moving channels around to 3-digit numbers and for them to be in their right genre groups.
2007, Launch of DStv Select and of entry bouquet DStv EasyView.
2008, Launch of DStv's first High Definition decoder the HD PVR, XtraView and the first HD channel, M-Net HD.
2009, HD channels - SuperSport 1 HD, Discovery HD Showcase are launched.
2010, DVB over IP (Digital Video Broadcast over Internet Protocol) and DStv on Demand service launched, as well as the HD PVR 2P and M-Net Movies 1 HD.
2011, DStv BoxOffice & DStv Mobile launched.
2011, GOtv, a new digital pay television offering on digital terrestrial television platforms is established in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
2012, DStv launched a new satellite in August "Intelsat 20", shuffling the channel numbers and offering subscribers 8 new HD channels from 1 October:
M-Net Movies Premier
M-Net Movies Comedy
M-Net Movies Family
M-Net Movies Action +
M-Net Movies Romance
M-Net Movies Showcase
M-Net Series Showcase (is a dedicated Series Channel first Fresh HD Series )
Studio Universal HD
2 new AfricaMagic channels
2013, Multichoice adds FoxHD to (DStv Premium Premium package only) and kykNET & Kie (DStv Family, Compact, and Premium packages). It also launched a new DStv Family bouquet
2013, DStv subscribers across Africa reach 6.7 million, with 4.5 million within South Africa.
2013, Multichoice launches its next-generation PVR decoder, the DStv Explora to Revolutionise TV in SA
2014, Africa Magic discontinues their old channels and replaces them with Africa Magic Showcase, Africa Magic Family and Africa Magic World.
2014, The new channels, Lifetime (131), Nicktoons, Nick Junior, Vuzu Amp, M-Net Edge and Glow (167) are launched.
2015, The new channels, Zee World (Hindi dubbed in English)(03/02/15) (166), Glow Tv (167), M-Net City (115), BET International (135), AMC (140), EVA (141), ITV Choice (123), M-Net Family (162)
2015, DStv upgrades its online customer experience (12–16 July 2015) improving customer experience and adding features which could only be done by contacting their call centre, giving their customers more self-service options.
2015, BBC Worldwide announced the launch of 3 BBC channels on Multichoice Africa:
BBC Brit replacing BBC Entertainment channel 120 and will be available on DStv Premium, Extra, Compact Plus, Compact on 1 September.
BBC Earth HD replacing BBC Knowledge channel 184 and will be available on DStv Premium on 1 September.
BBC First as a new channel 119 on DStv Premium on 18 October.
Alongside BBC World News and the new additions to DStv Compact BBC Lifestyle and Cbeebies.
2015, Popular Christian station Emmanuel TV (390) launches on DStv.
2015-2016, The launch of ID Xtra on DStv from 5 January 2016 to replace Investigation Discovery.
2016, TBN launches on DStv replacing Rhema tv from 4 March.,
2016,Dstv changes channel numbers for Vuzu Amp (now channel 103), M-Net Movies Premiere (now channel 104) and M-Net Movies Showcase (now channel 107) and cancelling M-Net Movies Drama & Romance and combining M-Net Movies Comedy and M-Net Movies Family into M-Net Movies Smile (channel 105).M-net Movies stars was renamed M-Net Movies All Stars. M-Net Movies Action and M-Net City began broadcast in HD.
2016,On 18 October 2016, M-Net Movies All Stars, Crime & Investigation Network, Food Network, KykNET& Kie, History Channel, Vuzu, SuperSport 6, SuperSport 2, BBC First and Mzansi Wethu began broadcast in HD.CBS Drama and CBS Action stopped airing on 20 October,while AMC and True Movies 1 will stop airing on the 11 and 12th of November respectively.
DStv MobileX
DStv Mobile DVBH and Bomba
DStv 20th Century Fox generations
DStv has a range of decoders (set-top boxes) manufactured by Altech UEC and Pace. The latest decoders allow subscribers to use XtraView. This allows a subscriber to link two decoders under a single subscription fee, to increase the viewing environments. (similar to Sky‘s multiroom).
Standard decoder
The Standard Decoder is DStv’s entry level HD single view decoder, introduced in 2014. It has XtraView capability, where it can be linked to itself,the HD PVR or the HD EXPLORA.
The explora, released in 2013 is DSTV's top spec decoder, improving on the old HD PVR decoder with more memory. It can record 1 channel and watch 1 channel.
The Explora, despite many updates to the firmware, still has many bugs that frustrate subscribers. In particular the Explora Catchup feature frequently skips episode 1 of a series, rendering the series unwatchable. Likewise, the schedules have been plagued by incorrect synopsis, incorrect series' numbers, incorrect actor and director details as well as recording conflicts and awkward user interface.
DSTV has yet to announce a schedule for repairing these issues, and largely ignore the many complaints.
Explora 2, released at the end of 2016, is the next generation of PVR decoder slated to replace the Explora eventually. The Explora 2 features a slimmed downed version of the Explora but with half the hard drive space of the Explora (1 terabyte is included in Explora 2 where the Explora came with 2 terabytes). In recompense, DStv implemented high efficiency video encoding (HEVC aka H.265), a much superior compression technology in order to offset data consumption. The video standard previously used was MPEG-2. The Explora 2 comes with a new A7 remote with backlit buttons for night time viewing. The new remote features a dedicated hotlink for ShowMax which joins Catchup, BoxOffice and DStv buttons for easy access to these services. The remote comes with low battery detection and also doubles as a universal remote for the TV.
A Drifta is a mobile decoder that receives a DVB-H signal, converts it into Wi-Fi, then relays it to a Wi-Fi enabled viewing device: cellphone, laptop, PC, tablets and most smartphones.
For the product to work it must be within DVB-H coverage.
At purchase
Drifta Device
Battery
USB cable
Power Adapter
Features
Broadcast Mobile TV on your PC, Smartphone or Tablet
Connects to your device via Wi-Fi or USB
Access the Mobile TV Guide
Small, light-weight and ultra portable
Rechargeable with up to three hours of viewing
These are decoders which DStv no longer produces:
HD PVR, a decoder that had 2 versions, one that could record 1 channel and watch 1, the other could watch 1 while recording 2 channels.
SD PVR, DStv’s first personal video recorder which allowed to view two and record one concurrently. It was manufactured by Altech UEC and has XtraView capability with the HD PVR.
Dual-View decoder is a decoder which allowed two separate viewing environments. It was manufactured by Altech UEC.
Drifta and Walka are mobile decoders which DSTV stopped selling although it still supports it.
1995-2014: So much more
2014–present: Feel every Moment
