DSTV / EWTN: Letter To Multichoice CEO

Below is the letter that was addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of Multichoice on 27 July 2012.  To date I have had no response of any kind whatsoever to this letter.  I had hoped that Multichoice would simply do the right thing and take the next logical step, which is to turn on EWTN for all.  

It seems that instead Multichoice is going to apply the typical corporate bully boy tactic. They're going to prove they're bigger and more powerful than the consumer. Multichoice will turn off EWTN for everyone in Africa.  

How utterly petty of Multichoice!

Here Is My Letter To The CEO

Mark Nel

P.O. Box 2458, Bedfordview, 2008

Gauteng, South Africa

27 July 2012

Chief Executive Officer

Multichoice

P.O. Box 1502

Randburg

2125

Dear Sir or Madam,

I, and others, have previously written to your company regarding

the fact that EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network), a Catholic

Satellite Television network, is available to your viewers

outside of South Africa on DSTV channel 348. This Catholic

network is however not available to your South African viewers,

despite numerous requests that it be made available.

In addition, your company has informed us in writing that some of

your viewers in South Africa are in fact able to view this

channel by manually tuning their decoders, if they have the right

decoder, to receive this channel. Those of us with decoders like

the HD PVR are unable to do so even though we subscribe to your

premium bouquet.

The South African constitution provides that “No person shall be

unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, and,

without derogating from the generality of this provision, on one

or more of the following ground in particular: race, gender, sex,

ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age,

disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.”

Since EWTN is already being broadcast by your company to the rest

of Africa and is available to certain South Africans through

manual tuning of some decoders in South Africa, it seems obvious

to us that what your company is in fact doing, is simply

discriminating against Catholics in South Africa and also in

general against some of your viewers, even though they have

subscribed to your premium bouquet and the latest decoders.

The fact that other religious channels are available to South

Africans, such as a Muslim channel and other non-denominational

Christian channels, makes the case even more compelling that your

company is actively discriminating against Catholics.

I therefore request that you kindly make this channel available

to all South African Catholics and put an end to this unnecessary

and senseless discrimination. I do not believe that this

necessitates the need to engage in legal action to force this

action upon your company.

Yours sincerely

MARK NEL

Multichoice, for goodness sake, why not just behave sensibly and try make your customers happy! Do the right thing!  Turn on channel 348 for everyone in Africa! No-one believes this PR rubbish that you send to your clients:

“MultiChoice considers a number of key factors when assessing the viability of a channel on the platform; these include the cost of distribution, the channel offering within the context of similar channels in that genre, subscriber feedback and the number of viewers and popularity of that channel.”

To see more:
Bishops To Sue DSTV

DSTV Discriminates Openly Against Catholics

Petition DSTV To Include EWTN

Naked Filth Before EWTN