By Graham Pfuhl

The DStv brand of today stands in stark contrast to the one that was launched in South Africa 15 years ago. Established on the back of what was then cutting-edge digital technology, the Pay-TV platform entered the local market facing very high barriers to entry. Priced at R5 000 each, the decoders of 1995 limited uptake of the product, initially positioning DStv as an extremely elite brand with access restricted to the top LSM (living standard measure) groups. DStv was also something totally new on the South African market at that time. While consumers knew and trusted Pay-TV thanks to M-Net already being on the market for nine years, it was a case of persuading these 1 000 000 subscribers to follow M-Net to DStv, and “try out” the new technology – while at the same time encouraging brand new subscribers.

Persuading consumers to try out new technology is something we recognised as the long-term growth driver of this business from the outset. As much of an edge as technology could – and would – give us in the market, without large scale uptake we could never achieve the economies of scale necessary to make DStv accessible to most South African households and enable us to achieve our vision of becoming the top Pay-TV provider across Africa. The first years of DStv thus saw us working extremely hard to build and position the brand in the market with the consistent objective of driving sales.

Market segmentation subsequently provided DStv with a tangible means of achieving this objective. We’re currently able to offer subscribers six different bouquets to choose from, ensuring that DStv has become a brand that is accessible to most South Africans. DStv Compact proved a turning point for us in this regard. Launched five years ago, this bouquet fundamentally changed the demographics of our household reach and gave us a real foothold in the Developing Market. Our experience with Compact also reinforced our philosophy regarding content namely, that to keep subscribers entertained and loyal, you have to constantly research what they want to watch and provide them with a variety of channel and programme options that meet these needs. For DStv the past 15 years have thus been about finding the right mix of content for our subscribers and enabling this using the latest technology. They’ve also been about building the right team of people to catalyse the brand’s success (no matter which segment of the business they contribute to) by translating this mix of content and technology into sales – and thereby helping us to achieve our vision.

That being said, we’re acutely aware that technology will also always be a key driver of this business as this is ultimately what gives us access to various households. It’s also allowed us to share a number of world firsts with our subscribers (dual-view decoders) and fundamentally influence how viewers watch TV thanks to the PVR (personal video recorder). With HD (high definition) already available and a number of other breakthroughs on the horizon, this remains a very exciting time for all of us at DStv.

Perhaps the most gratifying part of this journey for me however, is the fact that subscribers have made it with us and remained loyal to DStv. And, while we’ll continue to set ourselves tough targets to ensure we achieve the brand’s objectives, the good news is that there is still “so much more” to look forward to and that the past 15 years are merely a taste of what’s yet to come…