149 DStv channels for R399.50 per month
Monday, 7 September 2026
South Africans can get access to 149 live DStv channels for just R399.50 per month by splitting the cost of a DStv Premium streaming subscription with another person.
The DStv Premium package currently offers 149 channels, including the full SuperSport bouquet, which is arguably its biggest attraction.
The pay-TV broadcaster introduced a payment feature in the MyDStv App in January 2026, enabling customers to split the cost of a single subscription with a friend or family member.
It enables the primary account holder to send a payment link to another person, through which they can contribute towards the monthly subscription costs.
“The feature reflects the reality of shared living arrangements, where subscription costs are often divided across households, and is designed to make cost-sharing simpler,” DStv said.
MultiChoice subsequently confirmed to MyBroadband that the payment feature applied to all off-contract decoder-based and streaming packages.
It added that there were plans to enable subscribers to split their bill with more than just one person, but it has not confirmed whether this has been implemented.
Based on its current package pricing, DStv Premium costs R979 per month for the decoder package and R799 per month for the streaming-only product.
Splitting the bill reduces the monthly subscription price for the decoder-based plan to R489.50 and the streaming-only package to R399.50.
DStv Compact Plus currently costs R659 per month for the decoder package and R549 per month for the streaming package.
Splitting these reduces the monthly decoder cost to R329.50 and the streaming-only subscription cost to R274.50. It gives subscribers access to around 140 live channels.
The streaming-only Compact product costs R399 per month, while the decoder-based package costs R479 per month.
Splitting the costs drops these fees to R239.50 for the decoder package and to R199.50 for the streaming plan. Subscribers get access to around 134 live channels.
At R150 per month, the DStv Access decoder product’s monthly cost can be reduced to R75, while the R99-per-month streaming-only package costs just R49.50 when split with another person.
DStv Access, Family, and Compact are set to benefit from an overhaul later this month, with the details set to be announced early next week.
DStv Premium is the worst value for money
MyBroadband analysed the value for money offered by each DStv package in South Africa and found that DStv Premium was the most expensive per channel.
With 149 channels for R799, the package effectively charges R5.36 per channel. This figure reduces to R2.68 per channel when the package cost is split with another person.
In comparison, DStv Compact Plus offers 140 channels for R549, or R3.92 per channel before splitting. Splitting the bill with another person drops the per-channel cost to R1.96.
With 134 channels for R399 per month, DStv Compact effectively charges R2.98 per channel, and splitting the monthly cost drops this figure to R1.49 per channel.
DStv Family subscribers get access to 110 channels for R229, which works out to R2.08 per channel. Splitting the bill reduces this cost to R1.04 per channel.
DStv Access offers the best value for money on this basis, with 75 channels for R99 per month before splitting. This works out to R1.32 per channel.
Splitting the bill to R49.50 per month reduces the effective cost per channel to R0.66. However, there are various aspects to consider.
While DStv Premium is effectively the most expensive per channel, it is highly popular among sports fans due to its extensive SuperSport channel lineup.
It is the only DStv package that offers access to the full bouquet of SuperSport channels and may therefore offer better value for money for sports fans in South Africa.
Similarly, DStv Premium is currently the only package that offers access to channels such as M-Net, M-Net Movies 1, Discovery Channel, BBC Earth, and Bloomberg TV.
DStv package prices and channel offerings are compared in the table below, along with the adjusted costs when splitting a DStv bill with another person. We used streaming-only plans for the comparison. - See image.
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