Local satellite TV newcomer Top TV has made an explosive entrance into the market, selling out its entire stock rack on Saturday.
Parent company On Digital Media (ODM) says all 50 000 decoders flew out of shops on the first day, leaving the company scrambling to bring in additional stock to serve the market. “We never expected this kind of response,” says the company's publicity manager, Melinda Connor.
She says the company is now under pressure to bring in additional stock and boost its call centre capacity, a process which is now under way. Connor says the company has ordered new stock and it should arrive later this week.
Connor adds that the call centre staff are also under pressure. “We have 30 agents working the call centre. We expected a lot of calls over the weekend, but ended up passing through 1 000 calls every hour. We are obviously pleased with the response, but we are worried that customers are not getting through to the call centre,” she explains.
Last week, ODM's CEO, Vino Govender, explained the company would bring in 50 000 decoders for its first run, which started at the weekend. It was going to bring in an additional 120 000 by June, depending on the market response.
However, the second decoder order has been ramped up to fill demand. “We have let customers who have ordered know that there will be additional stock soon. We are also looking into regional figures to see if there is enough support and installation staff in each region,” adds Connor.
The company's entrance has sparked something of a mini price war in the market, which is only expected to escalate.
MultiChoice has already responded with its own R99 offering to counter Top TV's market entrance. It has also made a play into IPTV and mobile TV. According to the company's latest interim results figures, the DSTV platform sports around 2.5 million subscribers.
There are still two other satellite providers expected to hit the market soon. Super5Media has been quietly preparing for its debut, and this is expected to happen before the end of the year.
Religious-themed satellite provider Walking on Water is also expected to show face at some point; however, licensing troubles have stymied its route to market. These new providers will likely enter the market with competitive pricing, which will probably be countered again by MultiChoice.
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