Cheapest data bundles for streaming during load-shedding

Cheap limited-time mobile data bundles allow South Africans without uncapped broadband packages to download their favourite TV shows and movies to enjoy when load-shedding hits.

A smartphone or tablet battery can easily last through multiple bouts of load-shedding, so you don’t need a backup power source to feed electricity to your streaming device.

While the ideal option for video streaming services is an uncapped data package, it is not something everyone can afford or has access to.

Many video streaming services — including Netflix, Showmax, and Disney+ — allow you to download content to watch at a later time when you don’t have an Internet connection or don’t want to consume your mobile data.

If you don’t have an affordable uncapped data service at your disposal, you can use cheap daily or hourly bundles to download movies and TV shows within a short period.

Netflix’s Windows app also supports the feature on laptops.

Many streaming services available in South Africa have highly-efficient data consumption.

Locally-developed services have a bit of an edge here. DStv and Showmax offer low-quality streaming options that use substantially less data than popular international options like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube.

Typically, even the low-quality settings are more than enough to enjoy content on the relatively small screen of a smartphone or tablet.

The table below shows the results of recent tests by Analytico comparing the data consumption of the abovementioned services when using comparable low and high-quality streaming quality settings.

However, even when using the low-quality options, if you plan on buying typical monthly data bundles that many people are accustomed to, you will burn a hole in your wallet.

At R85 for a 1GB monthly data bundle on the two biggest networks — Vodacom and MTN — you will be paying quite a hefty price over and above your streaming service subscription.

Many of Netflix’s Original series feature eight to ten episodes in a season, each around an hour long.

That means you will need up to 2GB of data for just one show, costing you R170 if you buy the typical monthly 1GB data bundle.

You can save quite a bit per hour by buying larger data bundles, but these will only become cost-effective in the tens of gigabytes, which can be very expensive and leave you with excess data after downloading everything you want to watch.

If mobile data is your only option, the best way to significantly bring down the cost is to opt for cheaper limited-time bundles and download the content you want to watch before the bundles expire.

If you watch around three hours of Showmax every day during load-shedding, you will need about 357.9MB of data to download content for that period. Doing the same with Netflix will require 669MB of data per day.

The most cost-effective hourly data bundle available from major mobile networks in South Africa is the Vodacom 1GB anytime hourly bundle.

Downloading an hour of Showmax content on this bundle will cost about R1.43, while the same length of content on Netflix will set you back R2.68.

For an entire month of watching — with three hours of content per day — you will consume roughly 10.73GB downloading Showmax content or 20.07GB on Netflix content.

The former will require buying 11 Vodacom 1GB anytime bundles at a total cost of R120, while the latter will need about 20 of the same bundles at a cost of R240.

Those allocations will support up to 89 hours of streaming at low quality.

The table below summarises the length of content you can download on Netflix or Showmax and the cost per hour of the content when using hourly data bundles from Vodacom, MTN, and Telkom.

Daily data bundles are more expensive than hourly packages.

However, they come with the convenience of significantly more time to consume the data, which is essential if your overall network speed isn’t great.

In addition, more networks offer larger daily data bundles than hourly ones.

Cell C offers among the best value here, specifically with its larger bundles.

The best option in this instance is the 2GB daily bundle at R35.

Netflix content downloaded using this bundle will cost roughly R3.90 per hour, while doing the same for Showmax will cost R2.09 per hour.

The bundle will be able to provide 8 hours and 58 minutes of watchtime on Netflix, or 16 hours and 44 minutes on Showmax.

The table below summarises the length of content you can download on Netflix or Showmax and the cost per hour of the content when using daily data bundles from Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, and Cell C.

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