The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed MultiChoice Group has announced its annual price adjustments, with average prices set to rise by 2.7% from 1 April. DStv Premium customers will pay 1.2%, or R10/month, more for access. The pay-television broadcaster usually announces its annual price changes in early February to comply with regulatory requirements. This year is no different.

The biggest price change will apply to DStv Compact customers, who will pay 4.9%, or R20/month, more from 1 April.

The full list of adjustments are:

DStv Premium: Increase of 1.21% (R10/month) to R839/month

DStv Compact Plus: Increase of 1.86% (R10/month) to R549/month

DStv Compact: Increase of 4.89% (R20/month) to R409/month

DStv Family: Increase of 4.75% (R14/month) to R309/month

DStv Access: Increase of 4.35% (R5/month) to R120/month

DStv Easyview: Unchanged at R29/month

Pricing for Showmax, Add Movies and BoxOffice will remain unchanged for 2022, MultiChoice said.

“At 2.7%, the weighted adjustment across all of DStv’s offerings for 2022 is significantly lower than the projected CPI for the year,” the company said in a statement.

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“DStv has considered the challenges facing South African consumers and has once again absorbed as much of the increase of the cost of doing business as possible in order to implement minimal adjustments.”

MultiChoice Group chief operating officer Simon Camerer said in an interview with TechCentral that the growing number of streaming competitors in the South African market – Disney+ will be launched here this winter – had little to do with the broadcaster’s modest and below-inflation price adjustments in 2022.

‘Underlying costs’

“We do take a view of what the competition is doing. We noticed that Netflix recently increased their prices, and we have a view around Disney+, but when it comes to some of the [direct-to-home satellite] packages, we note [the competition] but don’t necessarily take it into account. We have underlying costs we need to take into consideration.”

And, he said, MultiChoice is doing its best to contain those costs by continuously reviewing all parts of the business for efficiency.

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Asked whether MultiChoice would consider offering bouquets – especially the DStv Premium bouquet – without premium sports channels provided by SuperSport and at a lower cost, Camerer said that is “not on the horizon”.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry