{"id":844461,"date":"2025-11-27T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=844461"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:18:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:18:31","slug":"big-win-for-anyone-with-dstv-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/844461\/big-win-for-anyone-with-dstv-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Big win for anyone with DStv in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans with DStv are getting free upgrades, an increase in the number of people that can watch content simultaneously on one subscription, cheaper decoders, and more content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of these changes come as part of DStv\u2019s, Multichoice\u2019s direct broadcast satellite service, Thol-iUpsize promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The promotion<\/a> automatically moves active decoder subscribers up to a higher package at no extra cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone on Compact Plus or Compact is being upgraded to Premium, while customers on Family or Access will now receive the Compact package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This applies to existing users, new subscribers, people renewing their accounts, and those who pay annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means many households will suddenly have access to channels and shows that were previously out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premium subscribers are also getting an improvement. Their usual limit of two simultaneous streams has been increased to four, and they will earn more DStv Rewards points than normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These points can be swapped for vouchers, discounted ticket access, special events, and other promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DStv is also expanding<\/a> how many people can watch at the same time on one Premium subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the end of 2025, up to six people can watch different channels or on-demand shows using a single decoder subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four streams can come through DStv Stream, one through mobile, and the main household can still watch via the decoder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes it far easier for families and extended households to watch different content without clashing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DStv recently restored its streaming flexibility after previously limiting accounts to one stream in 2021 to fight piracy and password sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision caused major frustration for legitimate users who wanted to watch on multiple TVs. A paid \u201cExtra Stream\u201d option was introduced in 2023, but customers continued to push back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, DStv reversed course and raised the limit to two streams for all packages. As a result, MultiChoice, unlike Netflix, does not restrict DStv Stream or Showmax to just one household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All part of the new plans for MultiChoice following Canal+ takeover<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During November and December, up to four other households can use the same DStv Stream subscription, making the service far more flexible and cost-effective for families who share accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decoder prices have also been reduced, lowering the cost for new users or anyone wanting to upgrade their hardware. Taken together, the promotions offer more value without any price increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These upgrades come after French media giant Canal+ completed its takeover of MultiChoice\u2014its largest acquisition ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ now controls DStv, DStv Stream, GOtv, and Showmax, which together reach more than 14 million customers across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this new ownership, MultiChoice is beginning to shift its strategy to compete more effectively in a global streaming market dominated by Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada previously said<\/a> that the company wants to make viewing easier by bringing its services together in a single \u201csuper app.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This app would include local content, African sport, international movies and series, and Canal+\u2019s large European library\u2014all in one place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saada said the goal is to make accessing content as convenient and pleasant as possible for subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Mignot, who now leads Canal+ Africa and oversees MultiChoice, said the combined catalogues of the two companies will offer far more variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ has thousands of European and American films, while MultiChoice remains the strongest provider of local African entertainment and sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mignot said the group now has the ability to use the strengths of both companies to create a larger and more competitive platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Thol-iUpsize promotion running and a major restructuring of the company underway, DStv subscribers are already seeing more value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans with DStv are getting major upgrades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":642271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[6633,78,853],"class_list":["post-844461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-canal","tag-dstv","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844473,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844461\/revisions\/844473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}