DStv vs The World – Satellite TV prices and content

As the dominant pay TV service in South Africa, DStv has the rights to an extensive catalogue of sports competitions, series, and movies.

However, it is often criticised by South Africans for being expensive.

A Premium subscription costs R819, which is exponentially more expensive than services like Netflix – which are priced between R100 and R200 per month.

However, streaming services like Netflix do not offer live content such as sports and news broadcasts.

Satellite services compared

While DStv is the dominant satellite service in South Africa, there are many other satellite TV services around the world.

In most other countries, there is closer competition than there is in South Africa, where the only real competition to DStv is Openview.

We have detailed the pricing of some of the largest satellite TV providers in the world, as well as the details of these broadcasters.

Prices were converted to South African rand using the exchange rate at the time of writing.

United States of America

DirecTV is the largest satellite TV provider in the US, and as of the second quarter of 2020, DirecTV had 14.29 million pay-TV subscribers.

The service is priced from $64.99 per month, which is a package that includes over 160 channels and includes ESPN, ESPN 2, and NBCSN.

The Premier Package is the most expensive package and includes over 330 channels, as well as HBO Max.

Dish TV is the next largest satellite TV service and has 9.02 million subscribers.

Bundles start at $59.99 per month, which includes 190 channels, while the most expensive package is a $94.99 product that includes over 290 channels.

Canada

Bell Satellite TV is one of the two popular satellite TV services in Canada.

Packages range from $49.45 per month – which includes 70 TV channels and some radio channels – to $110.45 per month – which has 151 TV channels.

Shaw Direct is the other major satellite TV player in Canada, and its packages range from $81 per month to $124 per month.

The cheapest package offers 74 base channels and an additional 15 channels of the subscriber’s choice, while the most expensive package includes 162 base channels and 78 additional channels.

United Kingdom

The main satellite TV provider in the United Kingdom is Sky TV.

The based Sky TV package costs £25, while customers can then choose which extra packages they would like to add to their bill.

Examples include Sky Sports for £30 per month, Sky Cinema for £19 per month, and Kids for £5 per month.

The base package includes channels such as Sky News, MTV, Fox, Comedy Central, Food Network, National Geographic, and Animal Planet.

Australia

The major Australian satellite TV player is Foxtel, for which pricing starts at $49 per month.

This package offers over 50 channels per month and spans entertainment, drama, lifestyles, documentaries, reality TV, and more.

For $20 per month, you can add Foxtel Movies HD, or for $25 per month, you can add Foxtel Sports HD.

The two other options are Premium – which includes Foxtel Plus, sports, movies, and three kids channels for $99 per month – and Platinum Plus, which also offers users 10 channels of crime, history, home, and reality TV, as well as a Netflix subscription and the ability to watch Foxtel on another screen.

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