{"id":653582,"date":"2026-06-12T11:03:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653582"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:04:26","slug":"dstvs-greatest-weapon-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/653582-dstvs-greatest-weapon-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv’s greatest weapon in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African broadcasters have been under threat from international streaming services for many years, but DStv has maintained one distinct advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice’s firm grip on live sports broadcasting rights in South Africa has made its higher-tier packages an essential expense for many of the country’s sports fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netflix was the first major international subscription streaming service to launch locally in 2016. At around R126 per month at the time, it was significantly cheaper than most of DStv’s packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offered a much larger library of movies and series on demand than DStv, which had also developed a reputation for frequently repeated programming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Netflix’s launch, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, and a plethora of smaller platforms have become available in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from a subscription fee at a fraction of the price of DStv Premium, the services require an Internet connection, preferably with uncapped data due to the high bandwidth demands of video streaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rapid rollout of fibre-to-the-home, fixed-LTE, and fixed-5G gave many more households access to affordable, uncapped Internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s Department of Communications and Digital Technologies also previously highlighted the threat posed by international streaming platforms to the local industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On-demand music and video online streaming services are seriously disrupting the industry globally,” the department said in its annual performance plan for 2024\/25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, MultiChoice itself acknowledged the existential threat posed by these providers to its DStv offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Currently, competition is fierce and will continue to grow rapidly and in a disruptive way,” MultiChoice said in its presentation at Icasa’s inquiry into the broadcasting services market in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We consider providers like Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, HBO Now & Peacock to be an existential competitive threat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the significant impact these services have had on the local entertainment industry, they still have not displaced DStv in the area of sports coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ loves SuperSport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Maxime Saada, Groupe Canal+ CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While DStv’s new owner, Groupe Canal+, has already made significant changes at DStv, it is unlikely that it will willfully do anything to undermine SuperSport’s advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following its takeover, Canal+ announced plans to cut costs at MultiChoice, which some feared might include reducing the company’s sports broadcasting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns intensified when SuperSport did not broadcast the 2026 Winter Olympics earlier this year, after more than a decade of broadcasting the event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Canal+ later revealed that the Winter Olympics decision had been taken long before it acquired MultiChoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the changes, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada said the company had various new plans and projects, but said it was too early to comment on the fate of many of its channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The only thing we can say is that we love SuperSport,” Saada added. The company subsequently made a significant announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early June 2026, it revealed it had signed agreements for various major sports tournaments, including the Rugby World Cup, Vodacom United Rugby Championship, and the English Premier League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ also confirmed an agreement with World Rugby for the rights to broadcast the Men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 and the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029 live on SuperSport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came amid the French media giant’s secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 3 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Confirming these broadcast rights puts the seal on an incredible occasion for us as the Canal+ Group, alongside the MultiChoice Group,” said David Mignot, Canal+ Africa CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is another firm commitment that we are putting our subscribers first by ensuring they never miss out on the best sports content from the continent and from across the globe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on Canal+’s JSE listing and its plans for SuperSport, veteran broadcast journalist Thinus Ferreira said the broadcaster would definitely maintain its dominance in sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They are really only talking about one brand, and that brand’s name is SuperSport. They are very optimistic and hyped about SuperSport,” Ferreira told Cape Talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They will definitely keep going with the sport. They know that with rugby and soccer, they do have that stranglehold on the wallets of pay-TV subscribers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DStv has managed to survive in the face of the existential threat posed by international streamers, thanks to one major advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":643930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[39088,45360,11115,21383,104368,96407,85,44766,66933,59451,92258,2054,30694,2924,3516,3406,62312],"class_list":["post-653582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-amazon-prime-video","tag-broadcasters","tag-broadcasting-2","tag-canal","tag-cape-talk","tag-disney-2","tag-dstv","tag-football","tag-groupe-canal","tag-live-sports","tag-maxime-saada","tag-netflix","tag-rugby","tag-streaming","tag-supersport","tag-thinus-ferreira","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653582"}],"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=653582"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653659,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653582\/revisions\/653659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}