{"id":567942,"date":"2024-11-04T16:08:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T14:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=567942"},"modified":"2024-11-04T16:08:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T14:08:37","slug":"south-african-streaming-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/567942-south-african-streaming-showdown.html","title":{"rendered":"South African streaming showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s streaming market has exploded in recent years, with residents able to choose from a range of platforms depending on their viewing preferences and budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These services have become popular as Internet access expands in the country and are poaching customers from traditional broadcasters, as they often offer a cheaper alternative and don’t include hefty setup costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multimedia and television journalism lecturer at the Durban University of Technology, Siphumelele Zondi, said expanded access to the Internet in South Africa means more residents are moving to streaming<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes at the detriment of the country’s traditional broadcasters and cinema chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zondi’s comments echoed those of Reach Africa sales director Leslie Adams, who said local broadcasters are following the same trend observed by satellite broadcasters in major Western markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said streaming services are “eating some of their lunch<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is partly due to the added flexibility of streaming services, which allow users to cancel and resubscribe at their convenience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your interests will evolve and change and it may be very periodic, but now the option is available to you to just turn on and turn off,” said Adams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africans have a slew of paid-for streaming services available, the most affordable of which is eMedia’s Premium eVOD subscription, which costs R29.99 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This gives customers access to various local movies and TV shows and a range of older international movies, allowing them to stream on up to two devices simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While YouTube Premium does not offer its own content in South Africa, it offers residents access to user-created content spanning a wide range of topics that customers can watch ad-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It costs R71.99 per month and gives customers access to its music streaming service, YouTube Music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At R79 per month, Amazon Prime Video is somewhat of a bargain. Giving subscribers access to an extensive catalogue of Amazon Original movies and series, various other films and TV shows, and a slew of Bollywood content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It lets customers stream on up to three devices simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showmax’s Entertainment package is priced at R99 per month and lets customers access international movies and series, including HBO content, as well as locally-produced films and TV shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribers can stream on two devices at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anime fans can get the Crunchyroll Mega Fan plan for the same price as Showmax Entertainment. However, it exclusively offers anime content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple TV+ has one of the smallest libraries of the services compared as it primarily offers its own original content. It costs R124.99 per month and allows up to six concurrent streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netflix’s Standard plan and Disney+ Premium are priced similarly in South Africa at R159.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netflix’s catalogue includes a wide range of original content, some of which was produced in South Africa, as well as various old and new international movies and series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It allows up to two users to stream on the same account simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney+ offers a higher streaming limit of up to four concurrent streams. Its catalogue includes international movies and series from Marvel, Pixar Star Wars, and National Geographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice’s DStv Stream service is available in various packages, with prices starting at R99 per month for the Access Plan and running up to R799 per month for the Premium subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Content varies per subscription tier, with higher tiers adding more content and live TV channels. DStv Stream includes local and international live TV, sports, movies, news, and documentaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers can stream on up to two devices simultaneously. However, one of these must be a mobile stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below compares nine popular streaming services in South Africa in terms of their content, price, and the number of simultaneous streams allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service<\/th>Content<\/th>Concurrent streams<\/th>Price<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Amazon Prime Video<\/td>Old\/New international movies and series. Bollywood movies and series<\/td>3<\/td>R79.00<\/td><\/tr>
Apple TV+<\/td>US and UK movies and series<\/td>6<\/td>R124.99<\/td><\/tr>
Crunchyroll Mega Fan<\/td>Anime content<\/td>4<\/td>R99.00<\/td><\/tr>
Disney+<\/td>Old\/New international movies and series, including Marvel, Pixar Star Wars, National Geographic<\/td>4<\/td>R159.00<\/td><\/tr>
DStv Stream<\/td>Local and international live TV, sports, movies, news, and documentaries<\/td>2*<\/td>R99 – R799<\/td><\/tr>
eVOD Premium<\/td>Local movies, series, soaps, and older international movies<\/td>2<\/td>R29.99<\/td><\/tr>
Netflix<\/td>Old\/New international movies and series. Broad range of original content, including local productions<\/td>2<\/td>R159.00<\/td><\/tr>
Showmax Entertainment<\/td>Old\/New international movies and series. Local international movies and series<\/td>2<\/td>R99.00<\/td><\/tr>
YouTube Premium<\/td>User-created content spanning a broad range of topics. Ad-free viewing across the platform.<\/td>Unlimited<\/td>R71.99<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody>
*DStv’s streaming packages include simultaneous streams for one device of any type and one mobile stream<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tfoot><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We compared popular streaming services in terms of content, pricing, and simultaneous stream limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":466399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[39088,96407,88200,2054,32140,97396,52823],"class_list":["post-567942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-amazon-prime-video","tag-disney-2","tag-dstv-stream","tag-netflix","tag-showmax","tag-streaming-platforms","tag-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567942"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568163,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567942\/revisions\/568163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}