Over the last six years, MultiChoice’s pay-TV platform, DStv, has outperformed other global providers, including Dish Network and Charter Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Globally, there has been a decline in pay-TV subscribers. This is known as cord-cutting, with households moving to streaming services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cable and satellite TV providers have lost over 20 million subscribers in the United States over the last decade, and this trend is accelerating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest research reveals that there are expected to be 80 million cord-cutting households in the United States by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Young people aged 18 to 29, who have grown up with the Internet and streaming services, are the most prolific cord-cutters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good benchmark is Dish Network, an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, Dish had 12.3 million pay-TV subscribers. In 2024, the company’s video subscribers plummeted to 8.1 million subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that Dish has lost a large percentage of its video subscribers over the last six years. The loss illustrates the growing consumer shift towards streaming services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charter Communications, another American telecommunications and mass media company, saw a similar decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, Charter Communications had 16.5 million residential pay-TV customers. By 2024, this number dropped to 13.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charter Communications lost 3 million subscribers over the last six years as competition began to bite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DStv, in comparison, has enjoyed growth over the last six years. In 2018, the company had 13.5 million DStv subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March 2024, MultiChoice had 15.7 million DStv subscribers. Despite a decline over the last year, MultiChoice grew its subscriber numbers by over 2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Dish and Charter Communications lost subscribers over the last six years, MultiChoice enjoyed strong DStv growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DStv’s strong performance raises the question of how it has performed so much better than international powerhouses like Dish Network and Charter Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is multi-fold and includes DStv’s exclusive local content, excellent sports offerings, and Africa’s unique Internet and business environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many South African households, bars, hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts, DStv has been a must-have service for two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DStv is the only platform on which users can enjoy local programming, such as Afrikaans series and talk shows, and watch all rugby, cricket, and soccer matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DStv and Supersport have invested billions to secure exclusive local content and sports broadcasting rights, which has created a loyal customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although free, local platforms like SABC, Openview, and E-tv do not offer significant competition to DStv. Their value cannot be compared to DStv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MultiChoice’s strategy of continuing to invest in the best sports and local content has made it more resilient to increased competition than many international pay-TV platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It must have been tempting for MultiChoice to cut its sports offering when the rand weakened and broadcast rights increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, maintaining their high-quality SuperSport offering was the right decision to make DStv sticky. This is clearly seen in DStv outperforming Dish Network and Charter Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MultiChoice is also increasing its local content investment. It is the largest producer of original content on the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the last year, MultiChoice produced over 6,500 hours of local content, and its local content library now has more than 84,000 hours of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another factor which puts MultiChoice in a unique situation is the countries in which it operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most African countries have poor broadband penetration, especially fast, affordable, uncapped fibre connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This creates a barrier to entry to many global streaming services geared towards fixed-broadband and smart TVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MultiChoice’s DStv service relies on satellite technology, which means it can service subscribers in all areas, independent of Internet connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These factors have helped DStv weather the cord-cutting storm better than companies like Dish Network and Charter Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It also provided MultiChoice with more time to build alternative revenue streams, including Showmax, Moment, SuperSportBet, DStv Internet, and DStv Stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MultiChoice\u2019s DStv has outperformed its international counterparts, including Dish and Charter Communications, over the last six years. We look at the numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":546091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[58220,25231,85,475],"class_list":["post-568395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-charter-communications","tag-dish-network","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568395"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568395"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568773,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568395\/revisions\/568773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pay-TV Provider<\/th> 2018<\/th> 2024<\/th> Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Dish Network<\/td> 12.3 million<\/td> 8.1 million<\/td> -35%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Charter Communications<\/td> 16.5 million<\/td> 13.5 million<\/td> -18%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr> MultiChoice DStv<\/td> 13.5 million<\/td> 15.7 million<\/td> +16%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n How DStv outperformed Dish Network and Charter Communications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n