DStv price and channel showdown – Premium vs Extra vs Compact
DStv recently announced it had added 17 channels to its DStv Now app, bringing the total number of live channels to over 60.
While the DStv Now app is available to subscribers on any package, its live streaming functionality is limited to DStv Premium clients with PVR access activated.
To get an idea of how DStv Premium compares to the company’s other packages, we compared the available channels and pricing of each.
Prices exclude the PVR access fee of R85 per month, which activates features such as DStv Now, Catch Up, and BoxOffice.
| DStv package | Price | Channels | HD Channels | Avg. price/channel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DStv Premium | R759 | 139 | 15 | R5.46 |
| DStv Extra | R459 | 108 | 5 | R4.25 |
| DStv Compact | R345 | 95 | 4 | R3.63 |
| DStv Family | R219 | 72 | 0 | R3.04 |
| DStv Access | R99 | 53 | 0 | R1.87 |
| DStv EasyView | R29 | 29 | 0 | R1.00 |
Not shown in the table is that DStv Premium, Extra, and Compact include support for DStv Catch Up and the BoxOffice movie rental service.
We broke down the DStv packages with Catch Up to see how they compare.
The table below shows which channels DStv Premium, Extra, and Compact have in common. Audio channels were not included.
| Channels common between Premium, Extra, and Compact | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Movies & Entertainment | |||
| M-Net Action (110) | Sony Channel (127) | TCM (137) | SABC Encore (156) |
| M-Net Movies All Stars (111) | Sony Max (128) | M-Net Movies Zone (139) | Mzansi Magic (161) |
| Studio Universal (112) | BET International (129) | AMC (140) | M-Net Family (162) |
| M-Net City (115) | MTV (130) | kykNET & kie (145) | Mzansi Wethu (163) |
| Vuzu (116) | CBS Reality (132) | kykNET Nou! (146) | Mzansi Bioskop (164) |
| Universal Channel (117) | CBS Action (133) | Africa Magic Epic Movies (152) | Ebony Life TV (165) |
| Telemundo (118) | CBS Drama (134) | Africa Magic Family (154) | ZEE World (166) |
| BBC Brit (120) | TLC Entertainment (135) | Africa Magic World (155) | Glow TV (167) |
| Fox (125) | Discovery Family (136) | ||
| Documentaries & Lifestyle | |||
| Via (147) | Food Network (175) | Travel Channel (179) | Ignition (189) |
| Discovery IDx (171) | The Home Channel (176) | National Geographic Channel (181) | [ED] (190) |
| BBC Lifestyle (174) | Fashion One (178) | Nat Geo Wild (182) | |
| Free-to-air | |||
| SABC 1 (191) | e.tv (194) | BayTV (260) | Cape Town TV (263) |
| SABC 2 (192) | e.tv HD (194) | 1KZN TV (261) | Gauteng TV (265) |
| SABC 3 (193) | Soweto TV (251) | Tshwane TV (262) | Lesotho TV (292) |
| Sports | |||
| SuperSport Blitz (200) | SuperSport 4 (204) | SuperSport Select (210) | |
| SuperSport 3 (203) | SuperSport 9 (209) | TellyTrack (239) | |
| Kids & Teen | |||
| Cartoon Network (301) | Disney XD (304) | Disney Junior (309) | Mindset Learn (319) |
| Boomerang (302) | Nick Toons (308) | Jim Jam (310) | |
| Music | |||
| Channel O (320) | M-TV Base (322) | Trace Africa (326) | |
| Mzansi Music (321) | Trace Urban (325) | One Gospel (331) | |
| Religion | |||
| Dumisa (340) | TBN (343) | Emmanuel TV (390) | |
| Faith (341) | iTV (347) | ||
| News & Commerce | |||
| BBC World News (400) | SABC News (404) | RT (407) | BusinessDay TV (412) |
| CNN (401) | ANN7 (405) | Parliamentary Service (408) | NDTV 24×7 (413) |
| eNCA (403) | Al Jazeera (406) | CCTV-9 (409) | Weather24 (415) |
| CNBC Africa (410) | CCTV-4 (447) | ||
The table below shows which channels you get on DStv Extra, but not on Compact, as well as which channels are exclusive to DStv Premium.
| Channels only on DStv Extra and Premium | Channels only on DStv Premium |
|---|---|
| Movies & Entertainment | |
| Comedy Central (122) | M-Net (101) |
| Fox Crime (126) | M-Net Edge (102) |
| True Movies (138) | Vuzu Amp (103) |
| kykNET (144) | M-Net Movies Premiere (104) |
| Africa Magic Urban Movies (153) | M-Net Movies Smile (105) |
| M-Net Action+ (106) | |
| M-Net Movies Showcase (107) | |
| BBC First (119) | |
| ITV Choice (123) | |
| E! (124) | |
| Lifetime (131) | |
| M-Net Plus 1 (901) | |
| Documentaries & Lifestyle | |
| Crime Investigation (170) | Discovery (121) |
| Animal Planet (183) | BBC Earth (184) |
| History (186) | |
| Sports | |
| SuperSport 12 (212) | SuperSport 1 (201) |
| SuperSport 2 (202) | |
| SuperSport 5 (205) | |
| SuperSport 6 (206) | |
| SuperSport 7 (207) | |
| SuperSport 8 (208) | |
| SuperSport 12 (212) | |
| SuperSport 13 (213) | |
| SuperSport 14 (214) | |
| SuperSport Maximo (221) | |
| Kids & Teen | |
| Nickelodeon (305) | Disney Channel (303) |
| C-Beebies (306) | Nick jr. (307) |
| Music | |
| VH1 Classic (323) | |
| News & Commerce | |
| Sky News (402) | Bloomberg TV (411) |
| Specialist/Foreign | |
| RaiItalia (430) | |
| BVN (431) | |
| RTPi (435) | |
| TV5 Monde (437) | |
| Deutsche Welle (446) | |
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