South Africa’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster – DStv – has made a number of changes to its products and services in 2020.
These changes come as many affluent and middle-class South African households are adopting Internet-based streaming services over broadcasted television entertainment due to increased availability of fibre and video-on-demand services.
Most recently, parent company MultiChoice reported a drop of 100,000 Premium and Compact Plus DStv subscribers in its annual results for 2020.
The company’s mass-market segment saw significant growth, however, with an increase of 500,000 subscribers to a total of 4 million between its DStv Family, Access, and EasyView packages.
This could be an indication that it is refocusing its strategy to have lower-income households as its primary target market, but a major deal announced earlier this year shows DStv has not given up on its Premium subscribers yet.
Here are all of the big changes DStv made to its products throughout 2020.
Price increases
Following a price freeze on its package fees in 2019, DStv once again increased prices on most of its bouquets this year.
The increases were fairly modest, however, with the biggest jump of R14 on the DStv Family bouquet translating to an increase of just over 5%.
The Premium package saw its subscription increased from R809 to R819, while the Access fee jumped from R95 to R100.
The table below summarises the price increases for the different packages, with the biggest jump of R14 on the DStv Family bouquet.
Channels chopped, added, and changed
DStv modified its channel line-up on numerous occasions throughout the year.
It dropped two popular UK-based channels – ITV Choice and BBC First – and also axed indie-focused movie channel Sundance.
Meanwhile, it added a total of three new channels. ESPN and ESPN2 are primarily focused on American sports and additional football coverage, while fliekNET offers Afrikaans movies.
The table below shows a summary of the impacted channels, as well as when they were added or removed.
| Packages | 2019 Price | 2020 Price |
| DStv Premium | R809 | R819 |
| DStv Compact Plus | R519 | R529 |
| DStv Compact | R399 | R399 |
| DStv Family | R265 | R279 |
| DStv Access | R105 | R110 |
| DStv EasyView | R29 | R29 |
| Add-ons | 2019 Price | 2020 Price |
| Access Fee | R95 | R100
|
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Source: mybroadband
