MultiChoice Says DStv Has Lowest Repeat Rate In The World But Africans Watch More TV

If there’s one thing DStv subscribers complain about is the number of repeats they are constantly served.

You repeat programmes too much haaai
— Mduduzi Ntsele (@ntselemdu) November 22, 2019

Not only did Multichoice denounce their customers claim they went one step further and said DStv has the lowest repeat rate in the world:

We actually have the lowest repeat rate in the world, there’s just no question about it.
Every time a supplier comes here or a third party channel, Aletta [General Manager of Content at Multichoice] will say ‘What more have you got?
How can we bring people more content and reduce our repeats and we’re always told that our repeat rate is incredibly low?
Yolisa Phahle – MultiChoice General Entertainment CEO

In fact, the official gave some clarity and said the reason why South Africans still feel like there is excessively repeated content is because African households watch too much TV – around 5-6 hours daily.

Whilst these are the claims coming from MultiChoice the only evidence I could find from We Are Social’s digital report for 2019 on South Africa noted that the average watch time for South Africans, in particular, is only 2 hours 57 minutes – just under 3 hours.

A number of people on social media dismissed Multichoice’s claims as bogus and ultimately even if the claim of lowest repeat rates is true, if their consumer base still feels that is a problem, is that not something Multichoice should be looking to solve? I think it is, because if the average African household decided to watch less TV – that could have a negative impact on MultiChoice.