Multichoice has signed up between 4 000 and 5 000 users for its interactive television offering in the last six weeks.
The company held a media briefing yesterday at its Randburg offices to discuss the new system with journalists, in an event timed to match the ramp-up of its marketing campaign for the transparent blue keyboard and modem which provides a return path for the DSTV decoder.
Let the pioneers get shot by the Indians.
Multichoice Africa CEO Nolo Letele
Multichoice Africa CEO Nolo Letele says the offering will help the company boost average revenue per user figures without increasing the price of the decoder or subscription fees.
"While we`re charging the same subscription fee, we can start to charge for TV Mail," says Letele. "These are optional things. We are putting it out for free, for a period of time, so that people get comfortable with it."
Letele says interest in enhanced TV - the limited interaction that DSTV has offered since 1997 - failed to capture the imagination of advertisers. "There was a reticence among advertisers since there was no return path. Now that it`s there, things are starting to get quite interesting."
Interactive TV - or iTV - is not a new concept in the industry, with successes by the likes of French broadcaster Canal+ and the UK`s BSkyB leading the field. There have also been some casualties along the way, such as ITV Digital, which was recently shut down after losing lb800 million.
"We decided not to be at the forefront ourselves," says Letele. "Let the pioneers get shot by the Indians. They realised that some things didn`t work. They thought that everything interactive would be exciting, but it turned out that people didn`t want all those services.
"Our business model is that we`re not going to put it as a standalone business - they tried that at BSkyB and had to reintegrate it. If it adds significantly to the viewing, satisfaction levels go up greatly. We don`t want to scare people away, so we trickle-feed the products for people to get comfortable with them before rolling out more."
So far, real-time reality show Big Brother 2 and SuperSport have proved to be the biggest hits with interactive TV users. Multichoice believes that SMS integration into the TV mail system will also prove to be a huge success.
The company did admit, however, that its TV shopping portal leaves something to be desired. With a meagre selection of books and CDs and an anorexic catalogue from Mr Delivery, Multichoice expects its partners to come to the party in time for the Christmas shopping spree.
Mr Delivery`s system relies on postal codes to route orders to the nearest branch, but the postal code database lacked the Rivonia area in a recent ITWeb test. Although Rivonia has been added since, several other suburbs are not represented in the database, which is not serviced by Multichoice but by Mr Delivery.
More is on the way, promises Multichoice. There`s the SMS system, as well as TV banking planned for early next year. Plans are under way for other interactive channels, but the company would not say which ones.
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