{"id":624591,"date":"2026-01-10T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=624591"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:01:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T08:01:52","slug":"dstv-turning-into-the-sabc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/624591-dstv-turning-into-the-sabc.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv turning into the SABC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MultiChoice must radically transform and reimagine its pay-TV service, DStv, to remain competitive in a market that is increasingly being dominated by new technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the view of veteran television journalist Thinus Ferreira, who told MyBroadband that MultiChoice has been overwhelmed by internal conflict in the first three months since the Canal+ takeover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some radical transformation and reimagining of DStv will be required for it to sidestep the trajectory that traditional pay-TV is on,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that pay-TV operators in South Africa and Africa are following a similar trajectory to markets like the United States, with ongoing and significant subscriber erosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Canal+ will have to map out how it sees DStv, M-Net, Showmax, and SuperSport, not just as brands for the decades ahead, but how it sees the brands and offerings it wants to continue with flourishing,” said Ferreira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He likened the challenges facing Canal+ and DStv to those the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the perpetual race in broadcasting, the SABC stopped running with many things and fell behind. The same danger confronts Canal+ and DStv,” said Ferreira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is DStv in 2026? How does DStv look in 2036? How does DStv meet the 2026 and the 2036 consumer at a cost where the consumer will find it valuable?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groupe Canal+ gained\u00a0control of the MultiChoice Group\u00a0in September 2025, following a lengthy mandatory buyout process. The final phase of the transaction\u00a0commenced on 13 October 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferreira said MultiChoice has been rocked by internal conflict, cost-cutting, and culture clashes in the months following the transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Canal+ ordered MultiChoice to do the dirty work to tell suppliers and service providers their previously agreed contracts are getting cut 20%,” he said. Canal+ soon walked this instruction back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferreira added that Canal+, and therefore MultiChoice, is confronted by bigger fish in the form of streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferreira explained that these companies have more money to spend on content, adding that “it is just a matter of time before they rip away more sports \u2014 the lifeblood of traditional pay-TV”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“WWE already jumped to Netflix. In Australia, the English Premier League (EPL) jumped from traditional pay-TV to a streamer, along with a lot of rugby, and basically all cricket, to Amazon Prime Video,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that, in South Africa, the problem isn’t that the SABC or E-tv can’t buy premium sports rights, but because they are too expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SuperSport, therefore, gobbles it up. But again, a bigger fish is moving up from the depths and will start snapping up what SuperSport used to feed on,” said Ferreira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In that sense, DStv stands to be eclipsed at some point in time, in the way that DStv eclipsed the SABC.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ is scared of Netflix<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Globally, a trend of cord-cutting is being observed as television viewers abandon traditional pay-TV, and this trend has arrived for DStv in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the players driving this trend is Netflix, which Ferreira said is the bigger fish that Canal+ is scared of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s causing a double-whammy \u2014 what traditional pay-TV consumers like DStv subscribers used to get content-wise keeps getting less premium, while they’re asked constantly to pay more for an eroding offering,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If Canal+ wants to save DStv, it will have to find ways to make DStv more desirable to consumers at a lower price point.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means giving consumers a compelling enough reason, or reasons, to pay for the DStv service, which Ferreira says has become bloated and diluted its value offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particularly applies to DStv Premium subscribers. These subscribers could afford to jump ship to streaming services first, and are now being followed by the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Competitors like Netflix, Disney+, and others are offering new value propositions at a lower price point that look more attractive than DStv,” said Ferreira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that after an expensive acquisition like Canal+’s, companies often make drastic changes to cut costs to recoup the investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Canal+ isn’t going to save DStv by cutting its way to profitability or more subscribers,” said Ferreira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It needs innovation and new ideas, dynamic out-of-the-box thinking and application, and an end to the same-old things MultiChoice has done that have damaged DStv.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A veteran television analyst has explained whether Canal+’s takeover of MultiChoice can help save DStv.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":558130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,85,66933,475,2054,96742,52823,3516,3406],"class_list":["post-624591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-dstv","tag-groupe-canal","tag-multichoice","tag-netflix","tag-pay-tv-2","tag-streaming-services","tag-supersport","tag-thinus-ferreira"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624591"}],"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=624591"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624671,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624591\/revisions\/624671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}