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South Africans can get eleven streaming services for less than the price of DStv’s Premium decoder subscription, and the company’s Access Fee, a MyBroadband analysis has revealed.
The MultiChoice-owned broadcaster will increase the package’s pricing to R929 per month from 1 April 2024, and adding the Access Fee will take the combined monthly charge to R1,049.
The Access Fee will increase from R115 to R120 on 1 April, making it more expensive to add an additional viewing environment to the package.
MultiChoice is implementing price hikes ranging from 3.1% to 7.8% across its portfolio, with DStv Premium increasing by R50 from R879 to R929.
We have determined what streaming services South Africans could subscribe to without exceeding the monthly price of DStv Premium and the Access Fee.
For the analysis, we assumed that households paying for DStv Premium would likely already have an active Internet connection sufficient for streaming.
At the time of publication, numerous international and local streaming services were available to South African residents, including platforms that offer specific content, like anime, local soaps, documentaries and educational content.
Although DStv’s streaming-only Premium package is much cheaper than the decoder-based one, it limits concurrent streams to one device. In contrast, rivals offer two or more at no additional cost.
DStv does offer an Extra Stream add-on, but it only applies to mobile devices.
The table below lists eleven entertainment-focused streaming services South Africans can subscribe to for less than the decoder-based DStv Premium and Access Fee charges.
Entertainment-focused streaming services
Service Content Monthly price
Amazon Prime Video Old/New international movies and series. Bollywood movies and series R79.00
Apple TV+ US and UK movies and series R124.99
BritBox Old and new British movies and series R99.99
CrunchyRoll Mega Fan Anime and manga R49.00
Curiosity Stream Documentaries and other educational content R94.00
Disney+ Old/New international movies and series, including Marvel, Pixar Star Wars, National Geographic R139.00
eVOD Premium Local movies, series, soaps, and older international movies R29.99
Netflix Standard Old/New international movies and series. Broad range of riginal content, including local productions R159.00
Showmax Entertainment Old/New international movies and series. Local international movies and series R89.00
Viu Premium Older international movies and series. SABC and eTV soaps. Dubbed Korean series. R69.00
YouTube Premium User-created content spanning a broad range of topics. Ad-free viewing across the platform. R72.00
Total R1,004.97
However, one of the primary attractions of DStv’s Premium package is the extensive sports coverage offered through MultiChoice’s SuperSport channels.
Here, streaming services are very limited, with only a handful of services covering a small subset of live events available in South Africa.
These include DAZN, ESPN+, F1 TV, Showmax Mobile Premier League, and Stan Sport.
Combined, these streaming services total R922.51 per month — R126.49 less than the monthly price of DStv Premium and the Access Fee.
Showmax shifted its sports streaming strategy with the launch of Showmax 2.0.
Instead of offering the entire Showmax catalogue with extra sports content, as it did with Showmax Pro, sports fans can now opt for a standalone Showmax Mobile Premier League plan.
As the name implies, the content offered with the plan focuses on the English Premier League and is only accessible on mobile devices. It can be bundled with Showmax’s regular entertainment plans.
Other international sports streaming services are accessible through a VPN and a foreign payment method. However, this can be a hassle and is technically unlawful.
Below are several sports streaming services that South Africans can bundle together for less than the price of DStv Premium and the Access Fee.
Sports streaming services
Service Content Price
DAZN Premium Combat sports, primarily boxing R149.99
ESPN+ Primarily US sports, with some cricket, rugby, boxing, and soccer R206.34
F1 TV Pro Formula One content R112.46
Showmax Mobile-only Premier League English Premier League soccer R69.00
Stan Standard + Sport Motorsport, Rugby, Soccer, Tennis R384.72
Total R922.51
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