Netflix South Africa has just come out with an ad that takes a jab at the hefty installation process required for MultChoice DStv.
Yesterday, Netflix released a video on their Youtube channel called Man in Van/How to Get Netflix. This under 2-minute video stars a top comedian in the South African comedy scene; namely Jason Goliath- who owns the Goliath comedy club. During this video, Goliath takes on the role as an “installation technician” for Netflix; satirically taking a jab at MultiChoice DTtv whilst advertising Netflix’s no-installation required process.
An Unimpressed MultiChoice
This ad follows MultiChoice’s previous attempts at the May ICASA hearings, to push for more regulations against Netflix claiming that they pay no taxes in the country, do not need to comply with any local language quota, BEE and skill development regulations. They take issue with this as well as Netflix not having to pay relevant fees concerning South African companies. For example, a broadcasting licensing fee.
At the hearings, Mark Rayner, who is the chief operating officer of MultiChoice South Africa accused ICASA of turning a blind eye to this issue claiming that, “Netflix is in South Africa, they are advertising here, they are marketing here. But it is important to note they don’t have staff or an office here…”
Netflix’s Introduction to South African shores
Netflix was launched in South Africa in 2016 and it streaming services, which allow individuals to stream and watch the latest series, movies, and documentaries, seems to be making quite the impact. According to My Broadband,” MultiChoice, which operates DStv, believes that Netflix has grown to between 300,000 and 400,000 subscribers in South Africa since it launched in January 2016.” where Multichoice, “ lost over 100,000 DStv Premium subscribers in its last financial year.”
