DStv has cut the prices of its streaming-only packages, effective immediately. The announcement was made at MultiChoice’s media showcase on Thursday. It originally launched these packages which do not require a satellite dish in 2020. This allowed customers to stream content over either fibre or wireless broadband and the packages were priced at the same level as its ‘normal’ satellite service.
At the end of last year, it cut the price of the Premium streaming-only bundle from R829 to R699 per month. Following yesterday’s announcement, this price has now been made permanent.
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The streaming-only option means customers don’t have to pay installation and decoder costs. It also means that subscribers will avoid paying the monthly access fee (not to be confused with the Access package) which enables PVR functionality on its decoders. This saves an additional R110 per month.
Monthly subscription prices for streaming-only packages are now between 13% and 18% lower than the satellite pricing.
Satellite price per month | New monthly streaming price | Change | |
Premium | R839 | R699 | -17% |
Compact Plus | R549 | R469 | -15% |
Compact | R429 | R369 | -14% |
Family | R309 | R269 | -12% |
Access | R120 | R99 | -18% |
Earlier this year, DStv reduced the number of devices that were able to stream concurrently on a single subscription to just one (from two previously). While the group has said it is working to allow more subscriptions per household while still restricting the sharing of logins and passwords outside of a household, it has not provided any further feedback on this.
Across the top three packages, when factoring in the access fee, streaming-only prices are now between 26% and 32% lower.
MultiChoice says its DStv Streama set-top box will launch on October 1. The product has builtin Wi-Fi and – like its Explora Ultra decoder – its remote has dedicated buttons for Netflix, Showmax and YouTube. The box, which has been in development for the last two years, supports 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos and will be priced at R1 299.
The group also announced on Thursday that the price of its Showmax Pro service would be cut from R449 per month to R349 per month. This is a 22% reduction and is applicable only to its subscribers in South Africa.
This service offers a host of sports content over and above the standard Showmax on-demand fare. The sport includes primarily soccer, with Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, DStv Premiership, UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Nations League games available live. There is also athletics and boxing content. MultiChoice says it will also stream the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on Showmax Pro.
The pricing of its Showmax Pro Mobile plan remains R225 per month.
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