South Africa-based digital satellite TV network DStv has launched a mobile product called the iDrifta into the Ghanaian market, allowing subscribers to view mobile TV on their personal devices.
The iDrifta device is a plug-and-play mobile digital video broadcasting handheld (DVB-H) receiver specifically designed for Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad devices. It allows viewers with Apple mobile devices to access DStv’s full range of channels anywhere and at any time.
Ghana becomes the second country in which the product has been launched, after it debuted in South Africa in June. It is the latest gadget to be launched by DStv in Ghana in the wake of other brands including the Drifta, Drifta USB and Walka and DStv Mobile.
DStv Mobile Ghana’s country manager Edward Kwame Owusu explained that after the iOS device is plugged in the new app opens automatically, allowing users to “watch DStv Mobile straight away.”
DStv says the iDrifta is compatible with the fourth generation iPod, iPhone 4 and 4S, and any iPad (1, 2, and 3). It has a battery life of 3.5 hours and will draw power from the mobile device when connected. To use the device, subscribers only need to download the DStv Mobile Decoder application from Apple’s App Store.
DStv is Africa’s biggest pay TV service. Annual results for the financial year ended March 2012 – as released by Naspers – showed DStv received 492,667 new subscribers in South Africa and 191,766 in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 alone, bringing DStv’s sum subscriber base in Africa strong>to 5.5 million.
