South Africans love sport, don’t they? And now that the World Cup is entering its pivotal semi-final stage, more users than ever are tuning in to see a ball (and Neymar) roll around a field.
DStv has noted this trend, reportedly seeing a 60% increase in weekday usage of its DStv Now mobile streaming app since the World Cup began. Notably, there are five times more people using the app this June than in June 2017.
“The absolute peak in concurrent usage for one event was reached on 26 June, during the Nigeria vs Argentina game,” the company adds in a release.
“The app’s biggest ever test was on 16 June with both Springbok Rugby and World Cup Football under way at the same time, resulting in concurrent in-app views seven times higher than the peaks seen in June last year.”
Notably, the reasons behind the app’s boom in largely thanks to Multichoice’s “monopoly” of rights to broadcast Springbok matches live.
MultiChoice South Africa revealed its agenda of introducing 4K streaming in DStv Now, its live online streaming service, on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of MultiChoice South Africa, chief operating officer Mark Rayner said that they are in the process of developing DStv Now. In line with this progress is the testing of 4K streaming.
“The other key priority for us is working with the telcos to deliver mobile data propositions that make watching online painless and worry-free for our customer”