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Major Shake-Up Coming for DStv Subscribers in South Africa
Things are really shaking up for DStv subscribers in South Africa, and it’s not subtle. A major shake-up coming for DStv subscribers in South Africa has folks talking, especially after 2025 turned into a wild year for the country’s top pay-TV service.
DStv’s parent company, MultiChoice, got snapped up by a big foreign player, a French giant called Canal+. They’ve got their work cut out turning this 30-year-old operation around. It’s been rough lately with shaky operations and money troubles piling up.
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Blame it partly on all those global streaming apps stealing the show. DStv’s been losing customers and cash hand over fist for two years straight. Subscribers peaked at 17.3 million back in March 2023, but by March 2025, that number dropped to 14.5 million. The real pain? All those high-value Premium folks jumping ship.
Revenues took a hit too, from R59.1 billion down to R50.8 billion. Trading profit? It crashed 60%, from R10 billion to just R4 billion. Ouch.
Canal+ hasn’t spilled a full turnaround plan yet, but they’re dropping hints about zeroing in on what DStv does best: entertainment. That’s a shift from what former CEO Calvo Mawela pushed, with all those side hustles into other areas.
Canal+ bigwigs Maxime Saada and David Mignot talked up a beefier lineup of shows, pulling from both companies’ strengths. Smart move, right?
To cut costs, Canal+ hit pause on payments to tons of service providers earlier this year. They even demanded a flat 20% off all invoices. Didn’t fly, though, they had to back off quickly. Got warned it hurt small businesses and might break merger rules. Shake-up coming for DStv subscribers in South Africa feels real with moves like that.
These quick fixes might patch things short-term, but long-game success means more revenue. That could mean hiking prices or reeling in new customers. The problem is, folks are fed up with past increases, so keeping and growing the base is crucial for DStv subscribers in South Africa.
MultiChoice tried boosting value in 2025. Come March, they bumped the concurrent streams on Premium, Compact Plus, and Compact up to two devices. Remember early 2021? They cut it to one, and customers lost it, big backlash.
They said it fought piracy and sharing logins, but it just made legit users feel ripped off. Their fix was “Extra Stream” for a fee, but it didn’t stick the landing on retention.
Then Canal+ took full control in September 2025, and changes ramped up. Mid-October, DStv let you pay subs with “coins” from the Rewards program. Boom, within a month, over 1.6 million coins redeemed for full or partial payments. Program use shot up 83%. Nice win.
November brought a free Premium channel weekend for all decoder users. Right after, the Thol-iUpsize promo kicked in, running till the end of January 2026. Access and Family folks get all Compact channels. Compact and Compact Plus score Premium access, including those killer live sports. Premium users? Extra two streams on top.
These perks nudge lower-tier folks to upgrade for good. For DStv’s 30th birthday bash, they slashed decoder prices 40%, down to R299 at their online shop. Sweet deal.
Not everything’s rosy, though. April 2025 brought the usual price jumps. Premium up R50, Compact Plus R40. Connectivity/dual-view fee rose R5, Add Movies hit R20 more.
This might be the last April hike, financial year-end’s changing. Canal+ is syncing it to their January-December calendar.
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Bad news on channels too. DStv’s losing BET Africa, MTV Base, CBS Reality, and CBS Justice from Paramount Africa and ABC AMC. Warner Bros. Discovery has 12 more on the chopping block: Cartoon Network, Cartoonito, CNN, Discovery, Discovery Family, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, TLC, TNT Africa, Travel Channel, and Real Time.
Silver lining? New adds for everyone: Bravo Africa and SuperSport Afcon. Compact gets five extras from pricier packs, Family six. EasyView snags SuperSport Schools, Access gets Nicktoons and Zee World.
A major shake-up coming for DStv subscribers in South Africa for sure, a mix of ups, downs, and big promises ahead.
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