Openview Announced that it had acquired the broadcast rights for the English Premier League.
This move allowed the free satellite service provider to broadcast Premier League matches live on its News & Sports channel.
Openview said it would broadcast one live match every week, which will usually include one of the top six Premier League clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, or Tottenham Hotspur.
Unlike DStv, Openview is free-to-air, meaning that after buying a decoder and installing a dish, customers do not need to pay a monthly fee.
DStv charges a monthly fee for all of its packages, however, starting from R29 per month for EasyView subscribers and moving up to R809 per month for DStv Premium.
We compared the content available on DStv to the free-to-air Openview offering, including its newly-added News & Sports channel.
EasyView and OpenView channels
As Openview is a free product with a minimal offering, we compared it to the cheapest DStv package available – EasyView.
Considering that it will cost far more to install Openview than DStv EasyView, the R29 per month for DStv EasyView is essentially absorbed for the first three years.
This provides a fair comparison, as higher-end DStv packages are not only much more expensive, but they also offer a wealth of content unavailable at these lower prices.
Subsequently, if you want to watch a wide selection of sports, international content, and the latest shows, you should select a more expensive DStv subscription.
The table below provides a basic comparison of Openview and DStv’s EasyView products, excluding audio channels. Channel information was sourced directly from the broadcasters’ websites.
| Component | OpenView | DStv EasyView |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | Free | R29 |
| Installation cost (estimate) | R2,000(HD decoder) | R1,000 (HD decoder) |
| Entertainment and Lifestyle channels | SABC 1 | SABC 1 |
| SABC 2 | SABC 2 | |
| SABC 3 | SABC 3 | |
| e.tv | e.tv | |
| eExtra | Soweto TV | |
| eMovies | Bay TV | |
| eMovies Extra | 1 KZN | |
| eReality | Tshwane TV | |
| Star Life | Cape Town TV | |
| eForce | GauTV | |
| Glow TV | Lesotho TV | |
| TNT Africa | ||
| Real Time | ||
| SABC Encore | ||
| e.TV Extra | ||
| Children and Education | eToonz | JimJam |
| Mindset TV | eToonz | |
| Da Vinci Learning | Mindset TV | |
| Religion | FAITH | |
| Day Star | ||
| TBN | ||
| iTV Networks | ||
| Emmanuel TV | ||
| Sport | News & Sports | SuperSport Blitz |
| News, Commerce and Specialised channels | e.TV News | SABC News |
| BBC World News | Newzroom Afrika | |
| Al Jazeera | ||
| Parliamentary service | ||
| CGTN News | ||
| CNBC Africa | ||
| Business Day TV | ||
| Weather24 | ||
| Business Day TV | ||
| CCTV 4 | ||
| People’s Weather |
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