Tough economic conditions have put additional strain on South African consumers, with many cutting back on unecessary spending to save money. A large portion of households with lower monthly incomes are cutting back or have already cut back as much as they can on their DStv subscriptions. Premium subscribers in particular are steadily dropping the service as they turn to cheaper packages or streaming services instead, and fibre broadband has become so cheap that South Africans can actually save money by cancelling DStv in favour of a fibre package and streaming service subscription.
South African consumers who already have a fibre connection in addition to their DStv Premium subscription are in the best position to cancel if they need to save a lot of money every month, as the price difference between a Netflix and DStv subscription is significant. We compared the pricing of the two services below and calculated how much you would be able to save if you dropped DStv for Netflix.
DStv vs Netflix
It is important to note that DStv and Netflix both offer a great selection of TV shows and movies, but provide a very different user experience in many respects.
The biggest flaw in Netflix’s content is its lack of sport. DStv is home to the majority of live sport broadcasts and sports shows in the country, while Netflix has only a few interesting sport-related documentaries.
This means that if you want to watch the rugby, golf, football, cricket, or many other live games, you will need to have a DStv subscription to do so.
On the other hand, you can watch any show on Netflix at any time you want without waiting for it to screen at a particular time, and you also have the option to download shows for offline viewing.
DStv Premium is the top package on the platform, with 142 channels, and it includes a free subscription to Showmax and DStv Now.
The price of DStv Premium with and without PVR functionality is listed below.
DStv Premium Prices
DStv Premium R809
DStv Premium + PVR Access Fee R904
Netflix offers three tiers of packages, the most expensive of which is still substantially cheaper than DStv Premium and allows four simultaneous streams on the same account.
The variety of packages on Netflix are generally more suitable for people who share access to a streaming service or are watching on high-end hardware, as even sharing a Premium subscription with one other person would be cheaper than both users paying for the Basic package.
Below is the pricing for Netflix’s Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers:
Netflix Subscriptions Basic Standard Premium
Quality Below 720p Up to 1080p Up to 4K
Simultaneous streams 1 2 4
Price R99 R139 R169
Savings
It is apparent from the prices above that if you have an existing Internet connection and cancel DStv in favour of Netflix, you could save a significant amount each month.
This changes slightly if you do not have a high-speed Internet connection, however, especially if you want to subscribe to Netflix’s Premium package.
You can still save a reasonable amount of money if you bundle a fibre connection along with your Netflix package, however, depending on what speeds and packages you want to sign up for.
Netflix recommends the following download speeds depending on your stream resolution: 3Mbps for SD quality, 5Mbps for HD quality, and 25Mbps for Ultra HD quality.
The speed of the fibre package you choose will also affect how much you could save by switching from DStv, but you can change this depending on how much you are willing to spend.
We have listed the combined price of fibre packages and Netflix subscriptions below, along with how much you would save by paying for these instead of paying for DStv Premium with PVR.
For this comparison, we used the uncapped, unshaped Pure Fibre packages available from Afrihost, which are among the cheapest deals on the market.
Package Fibre Netflix Total Saving
Existing Connection + Netflix Basic – R99 R99 R805
Existing Connection + Netflix Standard – R139 R139 R765
Existing Connection + Netflix Basic – R169 R169 R735
8/5Mbps + Netflix Basic R399 R99 R498 R406
10/5Mbps + Netflix Basic R667 R99 R766 R138
10/5Mbps + Netflix Standard R667 R139 R806 R98
10/5Mbps + Netflix Premium R667 R169 R836 R68
20/10Mbps + Netflix Basic R797 R99 R896 R8
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Source: mybroadband
