{"id":873173,"date":"2026-09-01T16:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=873173"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:08:15","slug":"new-dstv-packages-and-pricing-for-south-africa-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/873173\/new-dstv-packages-and-pricing-for-south-africa-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"End of DStv as you know it in South Africa – new packages and pricing revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DStv has unveiled massive changes to its packages in South Africa following the Multichoice takeover by Canal+, with the first overhaul of streaming options revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to leaked details from DStv’s webpages, the group will simplify its offerings by introducing new packages, including a separate Sports package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new packages are expected to launch on 17 September. The packages are Starter, Select, Sports, Movies & Series, and Premium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, these changes and new prices are for streaming packages only and do not reflect any changes to satellite decoders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Starter package will cost R99 per month and offer 85 channels, including some sports, characterised as a “taster” for what DStv has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prices jump to R299 per month for Select, with 100 channels and additional sports content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A package many subscribers have been calling for is a separate Sports package, which will carry 115 channels and offer even more sports content, as well as some entertainment channels, for R399 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Movies & Series package will start at R500 per month and will carry 115 channels with a stronger entertainment focus, including M-Net, kykNET, and M Movies+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Premium is the only legacy DStv package that retains its name and will cost R799 per month for 130 TV channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The package changes reflect a remarkable shift in strategy from DStv, which has been bleeding customers over the years as it increasingly tried to shift viewers to its Premium packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A notable tactic was to keep top sports content\u2014some of the most popular in South Africa\u2014exclusive to the Premium package. Now, for the first time, customers will be able to cater to their specific tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from offering more flexibility, the group appears to be trying to make the entry point cheaper, with the Starter package’s R99 price lower than DStv Access’s R150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multichoice declined to comment on the leaks and told MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a> that any changes to its packages would be communicated to customers “in good time”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that some customers may notice differences in how their current DStv package name appears on certain platforms as part of ongoing product testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that \u201cthere is no change to customers\u2019 current subscriptions or the content they receive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines the new packages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Package<\/th>Channels<\/th>Price<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Starter<\/td>85<\/td>R99<\/td><\/tr>
Select<\/td>100<\/td>R299<\/td><\/tr>
Sports<\/td>115<\/td>R399<\/td><\/tr>
Movies & Series<\/td>115<\/td>R500<\/td><\/tr>
Premium<\/td>130<\/td>R799<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Too complicated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The launch of new DStv packages comes after Canal+ promised an overhaul of its offering in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ took control of Multichoice in September 2025 following a lengthy acquisition process. The deal was valued at over R50 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the acquisition, the resulting group was a 42-million-subscriber media giant, generating R164 billion in revenue across its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the issues at Multichoice quickly became apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a March 2026 status briefing, Canal+ outlined the multitude of challenges faced by the South African media company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After experiencing impressive growth from 2010 to 2023, the combined effects of macroeconomic factors and a difficult transition to OTT, marked by the expensive failure of Showmax, tore into the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This negatively impacted its profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ noted at the time that Multichoice had attempted to address the situation with short-term measures, but these negatively affected the subscriber base<\/strong><\/a>, worsening the original profitability issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing this trend, revenues decreased by \u20ac142 million (6%) from \u20ac2,542 million in 2024 to \u20ac2,400 million in 2025, driven by a decline in its subscriber base from 14.9 million to 14.4 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To turn Mutichoice’s fortunes around, Canal+ announced a R1.9 billion \u201cboost plan\u201d for the struggling media group, highlighting four main focus areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these key focus areas was a plan to streamline and simplify the different \u201ccommercial propositions\u201d offered, with clearer pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It noted that Multichoice offered up to 17 packages, with varying fees and five decoders\u2014something which proved messy and overly complicated for subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s aim was to rationalise all the brands, implement more targeted marketing, and lower the cost of entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the coming launch of the new packages, this appears to be that plan in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DStv has unveiled massive changes to its packages in South Africa following the Multichoice takeover by Canal+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":873181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2094801465160138775","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2192953974858335","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[78,1253],"class_list":["post-873173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873173","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873214,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873173\/revisions\/873214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}