{"id":651478,"date":"2026-06-06T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=651478"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:01:02","slug":"big-change-for-dstvs-cheapest-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/651478-big-change-for-dstvs-cheapest-package.html","title":{"rendered":"Big change for DStv’s cheapest package"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DStv’s most affordable satellite package, EasyView, is no longer listed for purchase on the broadcaster’s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the EasyView package was never available as a streaming package, the decoder package was previously available for customers to subscribe to through the DStv website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2026, selecting “Get DStv” presented just five package options: Premium, Compact Plus, Compact, Family, and Access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Searching for EasyView within the product catalogue also yielded no results for the package and instead pointed users to DStv Family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the search results across DStv’s entire website returned a link to EasyView, it pointed to the DStv package page, which showed only the aforementioned five packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ told MyBroadband that EasyView had been removed from the DStv website, but confirmed it was available to subscribe to through its WhatsApp and call centre channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The online packs available align with the DStv Stream packages, which don’t include EasyView,” Canal+ said. However, DStv does allow users to subscribe to its other satellite plans via its website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers interested in subscribing to EasyView may have believed that it was no longer available, as it was not advertised on the website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bouquet has been on offer since February 2008. It primarily features free-to-air channels with the advantage of higher-quality digital broadcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ did not elaborate on why it removed the bouquet from its website, while Internet access in South Africa has shown steady growth, and locals are increasingly comfortable with buying products online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company previously said streamlining DStv’s products would be a critical step in the company’s turnaround. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French media giant said its turnaround strategy was built on four pillars: better content, more transparent commercial propositions, stronger distribution, and operational excellence at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said improving the content proposition in Africa through joint products, in-house channels, global partnerships, and local production would be critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second pillar focuses on simplifying MultiChoice’s offerings, including those at DStv. Canal+ said this involved clarifying pricing, strengthening branding, and improving marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third pillar aims to grow subscribers by lowering entry costs through subsidised hardware, expanding distribution, and strengthening its salesforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ said the fourth pillar, operational excellence at scale, involved voluntary severance packages at MultiChoice and the restructuring of cybersecurity subsidiary Irdeto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showmax shutdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As part of its cost-cutting and product simplification, Canal+ shut down Showmax<\/a> on 30 April 2026, ending the service it had once positioned as the company’s answer to Netflix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the substantial annual losses experienced by Showmax, brought about by a relaunch of the service in partnership with Comcast, were unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ moved Showmax Originals and other select titles to a dedicated section within the DStv Stream app, accessible to Compact and Premium subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The move ensures award\u2011winning African stories remain widely available after the Showmax service closes,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected existing customers were given a free two-month trial of DStv Stream Compact with the option to pay a reduced monthly R99 fee for the bouquet for a year thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice launched Showmax in August 2015, and positioned it as a homegrown competitor to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It relaunched the service in February 2024, aiming to reach a combined subscriber base of 50 million by 2028, a target which industry experts doubted was anywhere near realistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve this, it entered into a partnership agreement and sold a 30% stake in Showmax to Comcast’s NBCUniversal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This saw Showmax undergo a significant redesign and relaunch on NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform. This came with hefty licensing fees from NBCUniversal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice’s initial projections were that Showmax would report trading losses that would start to reduce in 2025. However, the opposite happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reported trading losses of R1.2 billion in 2023, R2.6 billion in 2024, and R4.9 billion in 2025. Over the same period, Showmax’s revenue declined from R1.027 billion to R753 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice’s bill for multi-year technology licensing fees with NBCUniversal for its Peacock platform also reached R6.83 billion by the end of its 2024 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these commitments were not yet recognised as obligations in its financial reports, MultiChoice was contractually obligated to pay them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EasyView package is no longer listed on DStv’s website, but there are still ways to subscribe to the service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":651516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,85,21484,66933,475,427,32140],"class_list":["post-651478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-dstv","tag-dstv-easyview","tag-groupe-canal","tag-multichoice","tag-satellite-tv","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651478"}],"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=651478"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652559,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651478\/revisions\/652559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}