Repeat after me, this is not fair DStv

If there's one single thing regular television viewers hate most it is repeats. Well, at least the ones out of their control.

Those with DStv's PVR system can record, rewind and replay, as and when it suits them. That's the whole point of the nifty system; it allows for incredible personal choice to view what you want, when you want.

The "repeats" I'm bemoaning are the ones programmes channel bosses repeat - often in the same week. And it's not limited to films, shows or series.

Some channels, such as DStv's Hallmark, have replayed filler content between programmes with such alarming regularity that I almost know the scripts backwards.

But how far can TV companies push this? Children's channels reportedly have a much higher repeat rate (10 times) than general entertainment channels (four to six times), but is repeating the same content every two hours over a 24-hour period fair play?

And is hiding this vital information from consumers, including the fact that the content is a week old, acceptable?

DStv Mobile subscriber Thinus Groenewald doesn't think so. Nor do I. Groenewald bought a R599 Drifta device - a mobile TV decoder which allows viewing on computers, laptops and selected smartphones - three months ago so that his seven-year-old son could watch Cartoon Network on a laptop.

Cartoon Network is one of 15 channels available on DStv Mobile's limited mobile bouquet.

"My son started to complain that there were constant reruns ... on further investigation I discovered that DStv repeats the same shows every two hours and that the content is a week old!" said Groenewald.

"I feel cheated. Nowhere on their website did I find a reference to any of this. I would not have bought this device if I knew that ... I feel it amounts to false advertising."

I scoured the site; he was right.

The site also gave contradictory pricing options for "premium subscribers", saying DStv Mobile was free to such subscribers. Yet elsewhere on the site it said it was free only until March 2012.

After pointing out this pricing ambiguity, DStv Mobile committed to clarifying its website information.

For the record, the freebie indeed ends next March.

It also, just days after I raised Groenewald's concerns last week, "updated" its website to alert customers to the fact that Cartoon Network Mobile is not the same as CN on TV. It turns out nor is E! Entertainment Mobile, which has exactly the same repeat cycle Mondays to Fridays and content is also seven days old.

So, added to the DStv Mobile boast that Cartoon Network channel has "the latest and the greatest cartoons with all your favourite characters", it now runs the sentence: "The content on this channel is made for mobile. A selection of programmes is looped and repeated periodically."

Ditto for E! Entertainment Mobile. And DStv Mobile has added a brief disclaimer too next to its latest addition to the bouquet, M-Net Series Mobile, declaring that the channel includes substitute programmes from other M-Net channels where licence agreements for certain shows have not been granted.

Maiyo Simapungula, DStv's PR and communications manager, said consumer research has shown that mobile TV consumers tended to watch content in bite sizes, hence the repetitions.

"Made for mobile essentially means that the channels are optimised for the mobile viewing environment by having looped (repeat) content over a specific period," Simapungula said.

"This means that there is two hours of repeated content. At the end of the two hours the same content repeats itself for another two hours and so on until a 24-hour period is reached ... and a fresh new two hours begins to play.

"The two hours looped content is a week behind what you currently see on direct-to-home DStv."

However, if lengthy negotiations to secure outstanding rights for certain programmes were successful, Simapungula said, Cartoon Network mobile would be "exactly the same" as on TV.

Two things bother me in this case. Firstly, the new website info added to help clarify made-for-mobile content offers the bare minimum of detail and uses industry jargon like "looping", instead of using terms ordinary consumers can better understand.

Here was a great opportunity for DStv to put right an error on its part, one which has put consumers on the back foot. (I can't say how many consumers it affects because DStv won't tell me how many mobile subscribers it has.)

Instead of giving consumers a lesson in the differences between direct-to-television content and mobile content - information which would help them make informed purchase decisions - they're left not much better off.

Secondly, why was DStv so economic with the truth from the get go? It makes a critical difference whether the mobile channel offered is not the same at the TV version. It's not a nice-to-have detail, it's a crucial fact that should be made known upfront - in bold.

Besides similar complaints on the My Broadband website forum, which surely is monitored by someone at DStv, several other complaints on the company's own DStv Mobile web forum since launching last November should have rung alarm bells.

In June, the forum's administrator admitted CN Mobile's high repeat rate in response to a forum complaint, but could not explain why this information was not on the website. He promised to "escalate" it to "marketing" for investigation. Too late, the disgruntled customer sold his Drifta the same day.

Last week DStv Mobile launched the new and more affordable Drifta USB (R399) for use exclusively on PCs and laptops. I have no doubt the demand for mobile viewing will continue to rise. But so too will the demand for straight talk.

SUNDAY SMILE

At Woolworths Essentials crunchy peanut butter, with real crunch. The spread is from the US - which practically invented the stuff - and not only tastes good, but is priced right for an import. Little wonder it flies off the shelf.

SUNDAY SNARL

To National Geographic and Time magazine for offering long-time subscriber Alan Taurog "preferential" renewal subscription rates which were higher than new subscription offers - and without the free gift offered to new subscribers! Taurog said it would be easy to guess which offer he would take up.