DStv Premium is currently South Africa’s most expensive entertainment subscription service, but its price increases over the past nine years have been lower than Disney+ and Apple TV+.
In addition to DStv Premium, MultiChoice also operates on of South Africa’s earliest on-demand video streaming services — Showmax.
Launched in August 2015 at R99 per month, Showmax’s price has remained unchanged over the years.
MultiChoice briefly dropped it to R89 per month after relaunching the platform on a new technology stack in February 2024, but the promotional price expired on 1 August.
Soon after Showmax launched, Netflix burst on the scene. It launched in 130 countries at once, including South Africa, in January 2016 — placing pressure on DStv’s grip on pay-TV dominance.
The American streaming service was initially priced in dollars, with the basic subscription costing $7.99 (R126), standard priced at $9.99 (R158), and Netflix Premium being $11.99 (R190) per month.
The dollar amounts were calculated based on the January 2016 exchange rate of R15.57/$1.
Amazon’s Prime Video service was released in December of the same year, costing $2.99 for the first six months and $5.99 thereafter.
Apple TV+, launched in 2019, had a starting price similar to Prime Video: R84.99.
Second only to Netflix, Disney+ started with the highest subscription price of the streaming services — R128 per month.
Since Showmax arrived in South Africa in 2015, the DStv Premium price has increased by an average of 3.21% per year — much lower than inflation.
Prime Video has not changed its subscription price since its launch in 2016 either. One could argue that the price has decreased. However, the starting price was calculated based on a dollar conversion.
Netflix increased its prices once in South Africa. The pricing changes were announced in October 2021 and gradually rolled out to subscribers over six months.
Annualised, this is a 1.69% per year increase on its standard subscription and a 2.06% per year increase on its premium subscription since the service was launched.
Disney+ and Apple TV+ have hiked their prices by more than double Netflix’s average annual increase.
However, Disney+ only launched in South Africa in 2022. It has seen the second-highest increase so far, jumping from R128 when it launched to R139 in 2024.
Apple TV+ saw an even bigger average increase. The streaming service launched at R84.99 in 2019 and costs users R125, effectively increasing by 8% every year.
The table below shows the price and year the respective streaming services entered the market, along with DStv Premium for comparison.
Subscription | Year launched | Price when launched | Price now | Average annual increase |
---|---|---|---|---|
DStv Premium | N/A* (1995) | R699 (2015) | R929 | 3.21% (since 2015) |
Showmax | 2015 | R99 | R99 | 0% |
Netflix | 2016 | Standard: R139 Premium: R169 |
Standard: R159 Premium: R199 |
Standard: 1.69% Premium: 2.06% |
Prime Video | 2016 | R80 | R79 | 0% |
Apple TV+ | 2019 | R84.99 | R125 | 8.02% |
Disney+ | 2022 | R128 | R139 | 4.21% |
* DStv Premium’s average annual increase was calculated from 2015 — the same year Showmax was launched, and months before Netflix would launch globally in January 2016. |
The arrival of Netflix and other streaming platforms in South Africa also accelerated a shift in how people consumed entertainment at home, to the detriment of the country’s once-dominant pay-TV broadcaster.
DStv parent company MultiChoice recently reported a massive loss of R4.1 billion in its 2023/24 financial year, following an earlier loss of R2.9 billion in 2022/23.
In its most recent financial year, liabilities exceeded assets, leaving the company technically insolvent.
While several factors have contributed to DStv’s decline from a growing and profitable entertainment giant, Netflix is undoubtedly a major roleplayer in the broadcaster’s recent misfortunes.
The biggest influence Netflix had on DStv over the past eight years was reducing its valuable Premium customers, which brought in the highest average revenue per user.
Premium was once the most sought-after entertainment package in South Africa, offering a wide range of content and unbeatable sports offering, resulting in solid growth for many years.
MultiChoice first started reporting how many of its subscribers were on the Premium package in March 2012.
At that point, roughly 39% of its overall base — or about 2.19 million customers — were subscribed to its flagship offering.
Three years later, Premium’s share had shrunk to 23%, but its customer numbers had increased due to exponential growth across DStv’s packages.
In March 2015, Premium peaked at 2.35 million customers across Africa.
However, a year later, the three-year gain was all but erased — with a crash to less than 2.1 million Premium customers by March 2016.
A key event between these dates was Netflix’s global launch in January 2016.
South Africa was one of 130 countries that received official support for the service after it had previously required the use of a virtual private network to access.
With a monthly starting price of $7.99 (R126 at the time), Netflix offered incredible value for money compared to DStv Premium’s R699 price tag.
While Netflix’s content offering did not shoot the lights out at launch, it has expanded significantly over time.
It now offers thousands of movies and TV shows, including Netflix Originals and popular movies from third-party studios, as well as a vast catalogue of classics and older content — all without ads.