DStv Premium for over R4,400 cheaper

DStv Premium subscribers can save thousands of rands on their monthly subscription fees by signing up for a two-year contract rather than paying month-to-month or by using a streaming-only package.

DStv Premium is MultiChoice’s flagship entertainment product, offering over 135 channels — including all of its sought-after Supersport channels.

It also includes a subscription to on-demand video streaming service Showmax, which is normally priced at R99 per month on its own.

DStv Premium is available on either a satellite or streaming-only subscription.

There are two main payment plans for DStv Premium satellite packages — a 24-month contract with locked prices or a month-to-month plan with pricing that typically increases in April each year.

When bought on a regular, month-to-month plan, a DStv Premium subscription costs R979 per month.

That excludes the R125 Access Fee required to access the service’s online features and watch on an extra decoder.

For the first year, subscriptions without the access fee will cost R11,748. With the access fee, subscribers will pay another R1,500 per year, for a total of R13,248.

On a 24-month contract, DStv charges R949 per month for Premium, which works out to a saving of R30 per month.

That will save subscribers R360 over the month-to-month option in the first year.

If a customer wanted to use the Access Fee features, the annual savings when using the contract over a month-to-month plan would increase to R1,860.

However, the month-to-month Premium and Access Fee prices should increase over the second year, while the contract’s prices will remain the same.

Assuming the month-to-month subscription goes up by another 5.4% in MultiChoice’s next financial year, as it did in April 2025, the new fee will be about R1,032.

The Access Fee increased by roughly 4.2%. If that increase was applied again in April 2026, the charge would increase to R130.

That makes the monthly difference in the second year R2,556. Therefore, the total savings over the two-year contract will be roughly R4,416, most of which is contributed by the inclusion of the access fee.

More affordable streaming-only option

DStv Stream Premium is a more affordable option for those with a fast and reliable Internet connection who are willing to commit to a longer-term plan.

The package includes all of the features of the regular satellite plan, including a Showmax subscription and two simultaneous streams.

On a month-to-month plan, this subscription costs R799 per month. On a 12-month contract, DStv Stream Premium will set you back R699.

Over the duration of the contract, that R100 saving will translate to a discount of R1,200.

Compared with the DStv Premium month-to-month package, you will be saving R280 per month or R2,800 per year.

The biggest downside to this option is that you cannot watch DStv broadcasts on a decoder, which limits the total simultaneous viewing environments to the streaming cap.

DStv satellite users can enjoy concurrent viewing on their main decoder and every additional decoder for which the subscriber pays an access fee, as well as two streaming devices.

The table below summarises all the different options for DStv Premium satellite and streaming payment plans and their costs per month and over a year.