DStv Premium half-price package explained
MultiChoice recently announced its yearly DStv price hikes and its original table contained a line item for “DStv Premium bouquet minus M-Net” priced at less than half the cost of a full Premium subscription.
This interesting package was spotted by keen-eyed readers, raising many questions about the bouquet.
The pay TV operator confirmed that the Premium without M-Net subscription excludes only M-Net channel 101, even though it is priced at R278.80 per month, R346.20 less than the cost of the full Premium bouquet.
However, MultiChoice recently told MyBroadband that the Premium bouquet minus M-Net is a legacy issue and is limited to a certain type of subscriber.
“Customers who have this bouquet are original M-Net subscribers who could subscribe to M-Net only when it was still offered as a stand-alone channel,” MultiChoice explained.
These customers have an M-Net analogue decoder, through which they receive the M-Net channel, and a digital DStv decoder, through which they receive the rest of the channels on the Premium bouquet.
When the digital migration process is completed, this bouquet will no longer be available, MultiChoice said.
| DStv package | From | To |
| DStv Premium Bouquet | R590.00 | R625.00 |
| DStv Compact | R260.00 | R275.00 |
| DStv Select 1 and 2 | R166.00 | R175.00 |
| DStv EasyView | R20.00 | R29.00 |
| Access Fee for Dual-View, PVR and/or XtraView | R65.00 | R70.00 |
| M-Net (Analogue/ Terrestrial transmission) | R285.00 | R300.00 |
| DStv Premium Bouquet minus M-Net (not available to new subscribers) | R263.20 | R278.80 |
| MNDST | R326.80 | R346.20 |
| DStv Indian (North + South) Bouquet | R466.20 | R493.90 |
| DStv North + South Indian Bouquet Add-on | R300.30 | R318.10 |
| DStv North Indian + Portuguesa | R530.30 | R561.80 |
| DStv North Indian Add-On | R171.00 | R181.10 |
| DStv North Indian Bouquet | R265.10 | R280.80 |
| DStv Portuguesa Bouquet | R265.10 | R280.80 |
| DStv South Indian Add-On | R129.30 | R137.00 |
| DStv South Indian Bouquet | R201.10 | R213.00 |
| ZEE TV | R123.80 | R131.10 |
| EastNet | R36.10 | R38.20 |
| Standard Repair Charges | ||
| DStv Standard Decoder | R342.00 | R365.00 |
| DStv Dual View | R399.00 | R425.00 |
| DStv PVR (SD & HD) | R479.00 | R510.00 |
| M-Net Analogue/ Terrestrial Decoder | R433.00 | R460.00 |
| There’s no increase to below products | ||
| DStv Lite | R99.00 | No change |
| DStv Mobile (Excl. discounted product*) | R49.00 | No change |
| Decoder Care Contracts | ||
| DCC Single View | R 20.00 | No change |
| DCC Dual View | R 25.00 | No change |
| DCC SD PVR | R 35.00 | No change |
| DCC HD PVR | R 35.00 | No change |
| DCC HD PVR 2P | R 29.50 | No change |
| DCC IP HD-1 | R 25.00 | No change |
| DCC Drifta | R 5.00 | No change |
| DCC Walka | R 20.00 | No change |
| DCC Walka 7 | R 25.00 | No change |
Is this what channels would cost on their own?
Another interesting question raised by the difference in price between DStv Premium with and without M-Net is how indicative it is of M-Net’s overall value in the bouquet and a la carte channel subscription costs.
When asked if this is an accurate reflection of what the channel would cost if it were unbundled, MultiChoice didn’t answer directly.
“We do believe that offering individual channels would greatly increase the cost to the consumer,” MultiChoice said. “It is for this reason that we have created different bouquets to suit different lifestyles and pockets.”
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