DStv’s big streaming problem

DStv offers far fewer concurrent streams than other major video streaming services in South Africa, in addition to an inferior streaming resolution.

The MultiChoice-owned company controversially reduced the number of concurrent streams on all its packages from four to one device in March 2022.

DStv justified the measure as part of a crackdown on password-sharing and pirated IPTV streams.

However, the move ignited backlash from numerous customers who pointed out that it made it impossible for members within a paying customer’s household to stream different content at the same time, significantly handicapping the service’s benefits.

A few months later, former MultiChoice South Africa CEO Nyiko Shiburi revealed that the broadcaster was working on a solution that would allow multiple people within the same household to stream concurrently. At the time, Shiburi dubbed it “Proximity Control“.

In February 2023, former MultiChoice Group COO Simon Camerer said that the broadcaster was targeting mid-2023 to launch the feature.

When it confirmed it had started testing the feature in August 2023, Proximity Control was renamed “Home Base.”

Some Explora decoders already contain a Settings page for the Home Base feature, allowing users to send a “Heartbeat” from their decoder to verify the customer’s Internet connection.

However, DStv recently confirmed to MyBroadband that the feature was being “explored for the future”.

Instead, the company has launched an Extra Stream subscription.

With this option, users must pay an additional R99 per month for a mobile-only stream.

Even if the Home Base feature is still in the pipeline, it will likely require a DStv Explora or Streama to function.

With the growing penetration of uncapped broadband, there are many customers who only need a DStv Stream subscription.

This service works on a wide range of smart TVs and TV boxes and costs less than a DStv satellite subscription.

An analysis of changes in DStv’s Premium subscriber figures since the streaming limit was implemented showed the measure had failed to arrest a years-long decline in customers.

However, MultiChoice recently told MyBroadband that it was seeing a substantial increase in streaming-only subscribers.

That is despite the company quietly scrapping its cheaper R699 Premium streaming-only subscription with a single stream.

Its most affordable DStv Stream Premium option is now R799, which includes an additional mobile concurrent stream, supported on smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

To stream on two TVs at the same time, a customer would still need two separate DStv subscriptions.

The single stream limit compares poorly to international streaming services, all of which allow for three or more streams with subscription prices a fraction of the cost of DStv Premium.

For example, Netflix’s top-end Premium product is priced at R199 and supports up to four concurrent streams — with an effective per-stream cost of R49.75.

It should be noted that Netflix also limits these streams to a single household and has cracked down significantly on password sharing.

Disney+ Premium and Amazon Prime Video support up to four and three streams, respectively.

The effective per-stream cost is better on Amazon Prime Video, thanks to its highly affordable R79 monthly price compared with Disney+ Premium’s R139 price tag.

Apple TV+ is the most generous in terms of simultaneous streams, with up to six devices able to stream on a single account, priced at R124.99 per month.

YouTube Premium — which supports ad-free YouTube video playback and music streaming — also supports up to four streams of nearly all content, except for rented movies, which are limited to two devices at a time.

Even MultiChoice’s own streaming service, Showmax, supports up to two concurrent streams, with an effective per-stream cost of R49.50.

In addition to having lower effective prices per stream, all the global streaming services support up to 4K streaming resolution, which provides a four times higher pixel count than DStv Stream and Showmax’s Full HD quality.

The table below compares DStv and Showmax’s concurrent streaming limits and maximum streaming resolutions to those of their global rivals.

	Concurrent streams	Maximum streaming quality	Price	Effective price per stream
DStv Stream Premium	1 for all devices 1 additional for smartphone, tablet, or laptop	Full HD (1080p)	R799	R799
Netflix Premium	4 for all devices	4K (2160p)	R199	R49.75
Showmax Entertainment (MultiChoice owned)	2 for all devices	Full HD (1080p)	R99	R49.50
Amazon Prime Video	3 for all devices	4K (2160p)	R79	R26.33
Disney+ Premium	4 for all devices	4K (2160p)	R139	R34.75
Apple TV+	6 for all devices	4K (2160p)	R125	R20.83
YouTube Premium	4 for most videos 2 for rented or bought movies	4K (2160p)	R72	R18.00