Pay TV service DStv has lost around 600,000 subscribers in South Africa over the past one year, according to the MultiChoice Groups annual results for the year ending 31 March 2025.
The decline also affected the rest of Africa which lost an additional 600,000 subscribers.
DStv subscriber loss continuesThe rate of subscriber decline has slowed, MultiChoice said in a press release on Wednesday 11 June.
Linear subscribers were down 1.2 million or 8 year on year to 14.5 million active subscribers, with the loss evenly split between South African 0.6 million and Rest of Africa 0.6 million, it added in its consolidated annual financial statements .
Although reflecting an improvement on FY24 trends, this indicates ongoing broad-based pressure across the group's entire customer base.
Active DStv subscribers in South Africa now number 7 million, down from the 7.4 million reported in September last year and 7.6 million at the end of FY24.
South African consumers were under significant financial pressure because of high unemployment , low economic growth and the ongoing effect of load reductions, MultiChoice said.
The ongoing cost-of-living crisis has meant that households are struggling to make ends meet and many had no choice but to give up their DStv subscription for the time being, it added.
At the same time, the South African market has been affected by the ongoing global shift in video consumption towards cheaper streaming services, social media video and free or pirated video services.
The number of DStv Stream subscribers grew by 38, pushing up revenues for the online offering by 48. However, the groups overall subscription revenues fell by 3 year on year.