South Africans love to complain about the price of DStv, South Africa’s main pay-television platform owned by MultiChoice Group.
But how does the price of DStv Premium, the broadcaster’s top-end bouquet, compare to similar offerings from pay-TV operators elsewhere in the world?
TechCentral decided to investigate – and its findings are somewhat surprising.
We compared the cost of DStv Premium in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria to similar products in the UK, the US, Germany, Australia and Canada.
Our findings show that on a purely exchange rate-based price comparison, DStv Premium in South Africa is relatively cheap at R879/month (R799/month for streaming without a set-top box), second only to DStv Premium in Nigeria, which costs the equivalent of R590 for the satellite version.
The most expensive bouquet in the countries we researched is from Dish TV in the US, which also happens to have the highest number of channels at 290 (most packages in other markets have fewer than 200).
DStv Premium vs the world
Dish TV does not have a streaming option, but its competitor, Comcast-owned Xfinity’s Ultimate TV, is internet based and R788 cheaper than Dish TV. The much lower price is an extreme example of a worldwide trend in subscription television pricing.
| Country | Package | Domestic pricing per month | Rand equivalent at time of publication |
| UK | Sky Q – Sky TV and Netflix (satellite option with Sky Sports included at extra £20/month) | £51 | R1 179 |
| UK | Sky Stream – Sky Sports, Sky TV and Netflix (streaming only) | £46 | R1 063 |
| Germany | All Sky – Entertainment, Cinema, Sport, Bundesliga | €58 | R1 172 |
| Australia | Foxtel Platinum Plus – iQ5 set-top box, Foxtel Plus, Movies HD, Sports HD and Netflix | A$99 | R1 201 |
| Canada | Bell – Fibe TV Best – 20 radio channels, 165 channels with sports included | C$137 | R1 903 |
| US | Dish TV – America’s Top 250 Channels – 290 total channels including sports | US$110 | R2 100 |
| US | Xfinity Ultimate TV – 185+ channels including Disney XD, Nat Geo Wild and sports such as the Premier League and Formula 1 | US$68.50 | R1 312 |
| S Africa | DStv Premium (satellite and streaming) – 135+ channels with sports included | R879 | R879 |
| S Africa | DStv Premium streaming only – 135+ channels with sports included | R799 | R799 |
| Zambia | DStv Premium | ZK1 200 | R1 056 |
| Nigeria | DStv Premium | N24 500 | R590 |
| Zimbabwe | DStv Premium | US$75 | R1 436 |
Interesting to note is that MultiChoice does not offer its sports channels – branded SuperSport – as a separate option in any of its markets, forcing customers who want access to the full SuperSport offering to subscribe to DStv Premium instead of one of its lower-priced plans.
By contrast, separate sports packages are available in Australia, Germany, Canada and the US for a fraction of the cost of a full-service package.
Read: DStv Stream: MultiChoice’s new streaming platform
DStv Premium does, however, offer additional entertainment through Showmax, which normally costs R99/month (for now – a relaunch is planned for early next year). — (c) 2023 NewsCentral Media