MultiChoice is overhauling its South African DStv packages from 17 September 2026, introducing a standalone sports tier and cheaper entry-level options. The shake-up strips M-Net of its Premium exclusivity and shifts major football and rugby matches into a mid-priced package, marking the broadcaster’s biggest reworking in nearly 15 years.
The 17 September Lineup Shift and Streaming Price Structure
MultiChoice is reshaping its South African DStv offering in the biggest reworking of the broadcaster’s bouquets in nearly 15 years. The changes, set to take effect on 17 September 2026, replace longstanding package names with a simplified tiered structure for streaming users. Access, Family, and Compact disappear, replaced by Starter, Select, and Sports. A new entertainment-led package, Movies & Series, slots in beneath Premium, which stays at the top of the range.
From 17 September 2026, the streaming-only lineup becomes Starter at R99 a month with 85 channels, Select at R299 with 100 channels, Sports at R399 with 115 channels, Movies & Series at R500 with 115 channels, and Premium at R799 with 130 channels. Compact Plus was not mentioned and is understood to stay as it is. None of the prices change from what those streaming tiers already cost.
South African decoder customers keep paying their existing satellite rates. Access, Family, and Compact subscribers will be shifted automatically to Starter, Select, and Sports during September at the prices they pay today—R150, R339, and R479 a month on satellite, or R99, R299, and R399 on DStv Stream. Premium stays at R979 a month on satellite, but MultiChoice will sell it at R799 to anyone signing a 24-month contract.
Splitting SuperSport and Moving M-Net From Premium
For years, subscribers complained about being forced to pay for top-tier packages just to watch specific sports or entertainment channels. Willington Ngwepe, CEO of MultiChoice LicenceCo—the entity that holds DStv’s South African broadcasting licences and the one subscribers contract with—acknowledged that customer frustration drove the overhaul.
“For years, customers have been saying we are forced to end up taking Premium when all we need might be a few sports channels plus a few other entertainment channels. We’ve kind of not really responded to their cries.”
Willington Ngwepe, CEO of MultiChoice LicenceCo
The single biggest content shift is M-Net. The channel has been exclusive to DStv Premium for its entire life, but it moves down into Movies & Series, alongside kykNET and M Movies+. South Africans can now buy premium drama and film without paying for SuperSport. Meanwhile, MultiChoice will strip M-Net and kykNET of their DStv Premium exclusivity and move cricket, the UEFA Champions League, and domestic rugby into the new mid-priced Sports package. The Sports package carries Premier League, UEFA, cricket, UFC, WWE, and one United Rugby Championship match a week. Premium holds on to Springbok rugby, Formula 1, MotoGP, golf, and tennis.
Financial Risks and the Premium Subscriber Strategy
Moving popular sports and flagship entertainment channels out of the highest tier carries obvious financial risks for the business. Premium subscribers are, in Ngwepe’s words, more price insensitive, and they stay on Premium because it is the only package that contains everything they want. Give them a cheaper way to get the part they actually watch and a good number of them will take it.
“You can imagine the financial impact for the business of the downward movement from that offering. It’s an inherently risky kind of initiative, and maybe that’s what has delayed that kind of move.”
Willington Ngwepe, CEO of MultiChoice LicenceCo
MultiChoice did not announce any of this officially through a press conference at first. It published the package pages to the DStv website on the night of Friday 28 August and pulled them down, and MyBroadband saved the screenshots first, while BusinessTech reported the same. The company declined to comment, saying affected customers would be told in good time, and scheduled a briefing for journalists in Johannesburg on Monday 7 September.
Canal Plus Influence and the South African Carve-Out
The structural changes follow Canal+ taking control of MultiChoice in 2025 and beginning to push for a simpler and more affordable DStv offering. As reported by The Citizen in April, Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot criticised the complexity of DStv’s existing structure, pointing to 17 different price points
depending on factors such as technology and package choice. Canal+ has identified simplifying DStv’s commercial offering as a key part of its strategy to revive MultiChoice’s struggling South African business, backed by a committed R1.9 billion boost plan with clearer pricing and lower barriers to entry among its priorities.
DStv in South Africa is sold by MultiChoice LicenceCo, formally MultiChoice (Pty) Ltd. It exists because South African law caps foreign voting rights in a local broadcaster at 20 percent and requires licensees to be 30 percent owned by historically disadvantaged groups. When Canal+ completed its takeover of MultiChoice in September 2025, the South African business had to be carved out to comply, with Canal+ Africa supplying it with channels. Kenya sits under MultiChoice Africa Holdings BV instead as a different company with a different currency and different rights deals.
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