DStv’s new price increases revealed

MultiChoice South Africa will increase the prices of all its DStv bouquets with effect from 1 April 2021, the company’s chief operating officer, Simon Camerer, revealed in an interview with TechCentral on Thursday.

Most packages will see price increases below projected consumer price inflation (CPI) for 2021, with the Premium bouquet – which has come under pressure in recent years due to the weak economy and the proliferation of alternative streaming services – seeing its price increased by just 1.2% (see table below).

DStv Family gets the bigger price increase of the bouquets, with the price rising by 5.7% — above projected CPI — to R295/month.

“We have done our best to keep the prices under control. On a weighted average basis, you’re looking at a 2.4% increase,” Camerer said. Rising costs and currency volatility – MultiChoice buys a significant portion of its content in foreign currencies – necessitated the increases, he said, but the company has worked hard to minimise the impact by bringing the average price increases in at well below CPI.

	Old price	New price	Change
DStv Premium	R819	R829	1.22%
DStv Compact Plus	R529	R539	1.89%
DStv Compact	R399	R409	2.51%
DStv Family	R279	R295	5.73%
DStv Access	R110	R115	4.54%
BoxOffice rentals	R35	R40	14.29%
PVR access fee	R100	R105	5%

The biggest increase in prices is for DStv BoxOffice movie rentals, where the R5 increase per title to R40 works out to a 14.3% increase.

Camerer emphasised that consumers can get better pricing and save on decoder and installation costs if they sign up for a longer-term contract rather than being on a month-to-month payment plan.  – © 2021 NewsCentral Media

Duncan McLeod is Editor of TechCentral, on which this article was first published, here.