Big changes to DStv in South Africa

MultiChoice has made several changes to its DStv satellite and streaming service in 2026, driven in part by a cost-cutting exercise by its owner, Canal+.

The French media giant has made it a mission to reduce DStv’s operating costs and stop its subscriber exodus to return the broadcaster to profitability.

MultiChoice announced it would discontinue four channels on 16 September 2026. These include M-Net Movies 1, kykNET Lekker, Mzansi Bioskop, and Mzansi Music.

The company also reorganised content from its SuperSport Variety channels and replaced these with more thematic, sport-specific channels.

SuperSport Variety 1, 2, 3, and 4 were renamed SuperSport Football Plus, SuperSport KickOff, SuperSport Africa, and SuperSport Action.

One new channel, SuperSport Extra 2, will provide an additional option for simultaneous live broadcasts.

The changes come after four other channel cuts at the start of the year, as Paramount winds down its African linear TV business.

The production house’s BET Africa, CBS Reality, CBS Justice, and MTV Base channels ceased broadcasting on 1 January 2026.

While not driven by any decision on the broadcaster’s part, the fact that DStv did not replace the channels has saved it costs on content agreements.

Later that month, DStv Access customers got some good news. WWE, Trace Gospel, and Trace Ngoma, previously available only on more expensive bouquets, were added to their packages.

Alongside Family subscribers, Access customers also got access to all live FIFA World Cup matches for the first time.

Canal+’s subscriber growth strategy seems to be focused on the lower-income market. These are people who don’t have as much expendable income for streaming data.

At the higher end, MultiChoice has struggled to compete with international streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.

Another sign of this focus is that it is providing greater subsidies on decoders, which lower-income subscribers are more likely to need to access its channels via satellite broadcasting.

Demise of Showmax, with a silver lining

A big change at MultiChoice was the shutdown of its dedicated Showmax video streaming service at the end of April 2026.

The platform had been an albatross around its neck. In the lead-up to and two years following its relaunch, it incurred R9 billion in trading losses.

MultiChoice migrated some of its original content to a dedicated section within the DStv Stream app for Compact, Compact Plus, and Premium subscribers.

However, a lot of the international content that previously made the service appealing, including HBO and Warner Bros. shows, was dropped in June 2026.

On the positive side, the broadcaster opted to freeze subscription prices for the year. It also rolled out several features to help subscribers pay less for their DStv products.

In February 2026, it launched an official bill-splitting feature on the MyDStv app, allowing users to split the cost of a package 50-50.

Households that split a DStv Stream Premium subscription will each pay R398.50 per month, and each can watch one stream on any device simultaneously.

The broadcaster enabled subscribers to use their DStv Coins rewards points to offset part of their monthly subscription fees.

To earn coins, customers must take specific actions in the MyDStv app. Active users can earn between 500 and 2,000 coins per month.

10 coins are worth R1. Therefore, an active customer can earn discounts worth between R50 and R200 per month, making their package substantially cheaper.