For the primary time in a few years, DStv subscribers is not going to face a value improve in April – a big strategic shift underneath new proprietor Groupe Canal+ because the pay-television operator battles to arrest years of punishing subscriber losses.
In a wide-ranging interview with TechCentral on Thursday, newly appointed MultiChoice Group CEO David Mignot confirmed that the corporate is not going to increase DStv costs in April, breaking with a long-standing custom of annual April will increase that had turn out to be as predictable as they had been unpopular with shoppers.
“No, we’re not,” Mignot mentioned, when requested whether or not MultiChoice would improve pricing in April because it has performed yearly for a few years. “I need to give a transparent reply, as a result of we’re constructing subscribers, so it’s not the proper time to extend pricing.”
He added: “We aren’t planning, as we converse, any value improve.” He didn’t rule out the potential of value changes later within the 12 months, ought to they be essential — for instance, if the rand had been to weaken sharply.
The choice marks a pointy departure from MultiChoice’s historic method. As not too long ago as April 2025, the corporate raised DStv satellite tv for pc bouquet costs by between 2.1% and seven.9%, with DStv Premium’s satellite tv for pc providing climbing from R929 to R979/month, and DStv Entry – the entry-level satellite tv for pc bundle – leaping by almost 8%.
Mignot, a 30-year veteran of the pay-TV business who took over as MultiChoice Group CEO following Canal+’s acquisition of the corporate in September 2025, mentioned the precedence is easy: “Cease the bleeding, get again to development.”
The dimensions of MultiChoice’s subscriber disaster makes the pricing choice simple to grasp. The group has been haemorrhaging prospects at an alarming charge, shedding 2.8 million linear broadcasting subscribers within the two years to 31 March 2025 – with about half of these losses coming from South Africa alone.
Monetary toll
As TechCentral reported in June 2025, MultiChoice misplaced 1.2 million subscribers within the 12 months to end-March, an 8% year-on-year decline that left the group with 14.5 million energetic subscribers. The 12 months earlier than that, it shed 1.6 million prospects. By June 2025, Canal+ revealed that the decline had accelerated additional, to 1.4 million 12 months on 12 months.
The monetary toll has been extreme. Income fell by R4-billion to R52-billion for the 12 months ended 31 March 2025, whereas buying and selling revenue plunged 49% to R4-billion.
Learn: DStv cuts decoder costs and provides cost-sharing function
Mignot framed the subscriber decline as a failure of economic execution somewhat than a content material drawback. “The industrial engines of MultiChoice, and it’s fairly current, haven’t been offering sufficient new subscribers into the portfolio,” he mentioned.
He defined that in any client subscription enterprise, a pure churn charge of 12-15% a 12 months is inevitable as prospects’ circumstances change. “Persons are transferring, persons are dying, persons are shedding their job, persons are having different funds priorities,” he mentioned. “Meaning, even in case you are tremendous good … for those who don’t refill your portfolio of subscribers by 15% yearly, no matter you’re doing, you may be bleeding.”
The content material, he insisted, is just not the issue. “Content material is implausible. I imply, for those who take sport, for instance … the depth, the vary of content material at MultiChoice – SuperSport and M-Web and Africa Magic and every little thing – is unbelievable. Funding in content material is unbelievable. However the industrial engine is just not highly effective sufficient with a purpose to maintain the outfitted portfolio.”
Mignot mentioned the excellent news is that the industrial machine was firing on all cylinders till comparatively not too long ago. “This industrial engine was once tremendous highly effective, not solely in South Africa however in all of Africa, as much as like 2022, so it’s fairly a current state of affairs.”
He pointed to Canal+’s expertise in French-speaking Africa as proof {that a} volume-driven, price-stable technique can work. “On the French-speaking facet of Africa, the pricing construction now we have at this time has been precisely the identical for nearly 14 years now,” he mentioned.
He described his method as a “quantity technique” however pressured that it have to be worthwhile. “It’s not quantity for quantity’s sake. Clearly, it needs to be worthwhile development.”
Requested whether or not he thought costs wanted to be lower, he mentioned: “Might be. I don’t know. Might be.”
The pricing freeze comes forward of Canal+’s first set of mixed monetary outcomes, due for launch on 11 March, which is able to cowl the 12 months ended 31 December 2025. Mignot mentioned the corporate will even define its technique in additional element on the outcomes presentation.
He acknowledged that the subscriber state of affairs he inherited was essentially the most regarding discovering post-acquisition. “We have to repair that.” — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
Get breaking information from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Join right here.
