Standalone DStv Streaming Service Will Have Similar Price With Netflix

Analysts have predicted that DStv’s standalone streaming service will have pricing similar to that of Netflix. With plans in place to start offering DStv Now as a stand-alone service, some of the questions many of us have had is what the pricing will look like when it’s launched.

The lower cost compared to DStv packages would be due to the fact that Multichoice would no longer have to subsidise hardware costs such as the inclusion of a decoder:

MultiChoice subsidizes the decoder, therefore introducing an online service would lower th ecost of acquiring a new subscriber, introduce a marginal saving on MultiChoice Group income statement, and lower the cost of the new subscriber
Nozi Dikgale – Africa Analysis media analyst

Hopefully, the standalone service will still maintain sports content, which isn’t entirely clear yet. Some are suggesting that sporting content will be available as an add-on which would most probably require that you pay more.

Currently, Netflix costs R99 for the basic package, whilst the premium plan costs R169 which is a far cry from the current DStv premium which costs R809. This makes me believe that sporting content would need to be paid for additionally to make the standalone DStv Now viable.

With an expected launch window of March 2020, we won’t have to wait too long to see how DStv envisions their streaming service shaping up over the next few years.