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DStv has recorded a decline in year-end subscribers for a second consecutive year, and with the broadcaster hiking prices each year, more of its customers are switching to streaming services.
The MultiChoice-owned broadcaster began the implementation of another regime of price hikes across its various packages. The company had announced the upward review of the prices of its bouquets in April, citing economic realities as reasons for the price hike. This announcement came few days after few days after the Chinese-operated television company, StarTimes informed its customers of a price review.
For most pay-TV customers, the operators’ arguments were merely a platitude or familiar music to the ears. The latest hike was the third time in three years MultiChoice that had raised the prices of its various offerings.
With the latest price hike in Nigeria, for instance, the DStv Premium package increased by 16.7 per cent (N3,500) from N21,000 to N24,500. Similarly, the DStv Compact+ package has gone up by 16.5 per cent (N2,350) from N14,250 to N16,600. The DStv Compact package also rose by 16.7 per cent from N9,000 to N10,500. The DStv Confam package, previously priced at N5,300, went up by 17 per cent to N6,200.
Within the lower packages, the DStv Yanga package increased by 18.6 per cent (N550) from N2,950 to N3,500, while the DStv Padi package increased from N2,150 to N2,500, a difference of N350 or 16.3 per cent.
In the wake of the announcement, many DStv and GOtv users took to social media to condemn what they perceived as an indiscriminate hike by the cable-TV firm.
Opting for Media Box or Smart TV Streaming
The South African tech review publishers, MyBroadband compared the price of a smart TV to a non-smart TV and a media box to determine the cheapest way to stream video on a TV.
While streaming services are accessible on many modern TVs, those without smart TVs can opt for a media box or streaming stick to access a range of services.
MyBroadband analysis revealed that choosing a non-smart TV and a media box is often cheaper.
For the comparison, we compared the price of 32, 40, 43, and 50-inch smart TVs to the cost of buying a similar-sized non-smart TV and a Skyworth Leap S2, Xiaomi Mi TV Stick, Chromecast with Google TV, and Apple TV HD 32GB.
The Skyworth Leap S2 streaming stick is the cheapest at R799, while the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick costs R100 more
In the 32-inch category, we combined the various media boxes with a Sinotec STL-32WG6A, which is available for R1,899 through Takealot.
With the Skyworth Leap S2 and Xiaomi TV Stick, the combination worked out to R2,698 and R2,798, respectively, while the cheapest 32-inch smart TV we found — the Hisense 32A4K — costs R2,999.
The same trend is seen with the remainder of the screen sizes. However, the gap in price between the smart TV and the non-smart TV combined with a media box gets smaller with 43 and 50-inch TVs.
Regarding 43-inch TVs, the price gap between the smart TV and TV with media box combination drops to R201 for the Skyworth Leap S2 and R101 for the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick.
A similar price gap is seen in the 50-inch TV category, with the cheapest TV and media box combination costing R4,798, while the most affordable smart TV costs R4,999.
DStv’s price challenge
MultiChoice’s annual results for the year ended 31 March 2023 revealed a loss of around 144,000 subscribers between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
It also recorded a subscriber decline in the previous year. However, it was not as steep at around 17,000 year-end subscribers. Before these decreases, DStv was adding subscribers every year.
In August 2023, MultiChoice announced it was restructuring its DStv business packages and would implement price hikes of up to 24%.
Moreover, the company also reduced the number of TVs allowed per subscription from three to two, effectively resulting in a further increase for businesses like pubs and sports bars with multiple TVs.
A MyBroadband reader informed us of the issue, and MultiChoice confirmed the change would take effect from 1 September 2023.
The reader — who owns a pub in Johannesburg — said the increase and reduction of the number of TVs per subscription effectively work out to a 125% increase per TV.
DStv is also restructuring the sports channels offered with each subscription, meaning those who want to offer premium sports channels will have to upgrade to the more expensive Play Ultra package or GOtv Ultra Supa
