{"id":437378,"date":"2022-03-15T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=437378"},"modified":"2022-03-15T16:37:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:37:44","slug":"big-dstv-changes-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/437378-big-dstv-changes-in-2022.html","title":{"rendered":"Big DStv changes in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

DStv subscribers are set for a wave of changes in the next few weeks heading into April 2022, including price changes, channel revamps, and a controversial streaming adjustment.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster is facing increased pressure from a growing number of video streaming services, which have started to eat into its Premium subscriber base.<\/p>\n

Instead of competing directly on this front and recapturing its top-tier customers, the broadcaster is increasingly focused on its mid and lower-end customers, with a so-called “hyper-localised” approach.<\/p>\n

DStv believes this strategy will give it an edge in locally-appealing movies and TV shows that international content providers will find challenging to offer.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether this will pan out, but\u00a0Digital TV Research expects<\/strong><\/a> the broadcaster will grow its subscriber base across Africa by 18 million to reach 57 million in 2027.<\/p>\n

Here are all the significant confirmed changes coming to DStv over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\n

Price increases<\/h3>\n

As has become an annual practice, DStv will be implementing price increases<\/strong><\/a> on its packages from 1 April 2022, the start of its new financial year.<\/p>\n

This year’s hikes are below 2021’s inflation rate of 4.9%, with the largest increases being applied to DStv Compact and Family.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster said the adjustments came after a period of “increased value offerings” in its local and international general entertainment and sports content, DStv Internet, and DStv Rewards.<\/p>\n

It claimed it had absorbed as much of the increase of the cost of doing business as possible to implement minimal increases.<\/p>\n

The table below summarises the price changes for all packages.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
DStv Price Increases<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Packages<\/strong><\/td>\n2021 Price<\/strong><\/td>\n2022 Price<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DStv Premium<\/strong><\/td>\nR829<\/td>\nR839<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DStv Compact Plus<\/strong><\/td>\nR539<\/td>\nR549<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DStv Compact<\/strong><\/td>\nR409<\/td>\nR429<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DStv Family<\/strong><\/td>\nR295<\/td>\nR309<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DStv Access<\/strong><\/td>\nR115<\/td>\nR120<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Add-ons<\/strong><\/td>\n2021 Price<\/strong><\/td>\n2022 Price<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Access Fee<\/strong><\/td>\nR105<\/td>\nR110<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Box Office<\/strong><\/td>\nR40<\/td>\nR40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Channel changes<\/h3>\n

DStv’s channel offering is also getting a shake-up in April, with four dropouts<\/strong><\/a> and two additions<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

From 1 April 2022, eMovies, eMovies Extra, eExtra, and eToonz will be axed, following a renewed channel supply agreement between MultiChoice and eMedia.<\/p>\n

Among the new channels is kids-oriented DreamWorks, launching on 18 March.<\/p>\n

DreamWorks will be available on channel 304 on DStv Premium, Compact Plus, and Compact.<\/p>\n

DStv Family and Access subscribers will be able to access the channel for a limited open window period until 18 April.<\/p>\n

The KIX movie channel (DStv 114) will also become available on all packages except EasyView from 31 March.<\/p>\n

Another as-yet unconfirmed movie channel is also in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

Russian news channel RT Today was also abruptly cut from DStv’s packages on 2 March<\/strong><\/a>, although this might only be temporary.<\/p>\n

While many countries have opted to suspend the Russian state-funded channel due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, MultiChoice has explained<\/strong><\/a> that this was not due to its own decision but rather the global provider of the channel, which pulled the plug following EU sanctions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Streaming crackdown<\/h3>\n

To clamp down on password sharing, MultiChoice will be imposing a strict single-stream limit<\/strong><\/a> from 22 March 2022 across all its packages in Africa.<\/p>\n

A second user can still watch pre-downloaded content while another is streaming.<\/p>\n

Previously, subscribers were able to watch live TV on up to four different devices simultaneously in addition to a TV connected to a decoder.<\/p>\n

The change won’t affect viewing on decoders, which means DStv customers can still watch on up to three decoders on a single subscription using XtraView, in conjunction with one viewer on a streaming device.<\/p>\n

Showmax subscribers are also not affected by the change.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the severe limitation has caused an uproar among DStv subscribers, with threats of a boycott on social media<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The single-stream limit seems unreasonable<\/a><\/strong> compared to MultiChoice’s highly successful competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and overseas live sports streaming services.<\/p>\n

What makes the decision even stranger is that it outright undermines DStv’s recently-launched streaming-only product, which costs the same as the decoder-based offering but relies solely on streaming.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Goodbye TV licence \u2014 These big-screen monitors can replace your TV<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several major DStv changes are coming into effect in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":410826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[85,76186,23943,77214,35,475,62312],"class_list":["post-437378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-dstv","tag-dstv-channels","tag-dstv-prices","tag-dstv-streaming","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}