DStv Expect+ In A Nutshell For The Rest Of Africa

Canal+’s MultiChoice will be revamping its DStv packages across Africa by early November. Unlike the South African launch, where the company held a full press conference to detail each new package, MultiChoice has done very little publicity for the changes in other markets.

The limited marketing could suggest that MultiChoice has little that is genuinely new to offer these countries — or at least nothing that South African consumers do not already have. In many ways, the African revamp appears to be about aligning packages across territories.

MultiChoice has already unveiled its new packages for Kenya: DStv Ultimate, Sports, Select and Starter. This structure is expected to be rolled out across East and West Africa, as MultiChoice uses a shared transponder for the region.

This means DStv Select (currently Family) customers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and surrounding markets are likely to gain access to all three M-Net movie channels. Meanwhile, channels such as Comedy Central, History, TLC and Investigation Discovery will continue to be treated as higher-tier offerings.

In Southern African markets — including Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi — the packaging is expected to follow the South African model more closely. As a result, DStv Sports (currently Compact) customers should receive full cricket coverage and selected rugby matches.

MultiChoice currently offers 17 packages across its markets. Canal+ has been vocal about simplifying this offering, but few expected the process to involve aligning packages so closely across different regions. For example, DStv Compact+ is being discontinued, with customers redirected to DStv Ultimate/Premium.

DStv EasyView is being retained for now in South Africa, though it has been deprioritised following the closures of Magic Showcase and CineMagic. MultiChoice has since added France 24 (news), Church TV (religion) and Moja 9.9 (reality) to the package.

DStv Lite, the African equivalent of EasyView, is expected to be folded into DStv Starter. The new Starter package is set to offer around 90 channels. In Southern Africa this includes DreamWorks and Curiosity Channel, while other markets will get M Movies+ and Cartoon Network.

Alongside the package changes, MultiChoice remains on track to close several channels by the end of October: Zee TV, Zee Cinema, WION, SET Max and SET Asia. StarPlus, Colors TV and Vijay TV will remain. The following month, JimJam is also scheduled to go dark on the platform.

Behind the scenes, MultiChoice is also working to re-establish its streaming business after the closure of Showmax. Canal+ has been preparing to introduce its own self-titled streaming service into MultiChoice territories, following rollouts in markets where it already operates. DStv Stream has long been viewed as a potential vehicle for this, with new layout designs already spotted on the app.