In a highly questionable twist of corporate manipulation DStv's pulled a fast one on Premium subscribers who don't have PVRs. Customers who pay
the highest fee for their subscriptions - R699 a month - have had valuable services ripped away from them all because they don't have a specific decoder.
Over the past few weeks DStv's removed all online video streaming and Catch Up services from the packages of Premium subscribers who don't have PVRs. Every Premium subscriber used to be able to watch SuperSport online and could stream or download from the Catch Up website but that's been turned off. Associated apps have been impacted too - the SuperSport and DStv Now apps. No PVR/no services.
The reason? Online streaming and Catch Up are now considered "value added services" to Premium subscribers
with PVRs - which subscribers without PVRs aren't even allowed to pay extra for. You either buy the PVR or get nothing.
As you may know, PVR subscribers pay an R80 Access Fee for various services which includes recording functionality, XtraView etc. Catch Up and online streaming have now been added and restricted to this fee which Premium subsribers aren't allowed to pay if they don't have a PVR.
Of course this means that the only way subscribers can get the services is to... *advertising jingle* "Buy a PVR!".
It's yet another classic case of DStv ripping things away from people in order to force them into a purchase - they regularly do it with Compact subscribers when it comes to series and channels and now they're even doing it to Premium subscribers who are paying for the
full DStv package -
not DStv without the services they used to get.