In a world where streaming is making life as uncomfortable as possible for traditional TV suppliers (without the reintroduction of public flogging), you’d think that price increases would be a thing of the past. But inflation hasn’t gone away just because Netflix is in South Africa and it’s for that reason that Multichoice has announced price increases for its DStv packages.

Not as bad as you’d think

In a nod to just how competitive the market is, though, DStv’s increases — which take effect from 1 April this year — aren’t as large as they could have been. Increases range between R5 and R10 a month on some packages, while others aren’t being hit with an increment at all.

Contracts in the latter category are DStv Compact and DStv EasyView, which hold steady at R399 and R29 per month respectively. DStv Access climbs from R105 to R110 a month, while all the other packages increase by a wallet-busting ten bucks each.

That means that DStv Family goes from R265 to R275pm, DStv Compact Plus from R519 to R529pm and DStv Premium goes from… you guessed it, R809 per month to R819. Just like your doctor says after an injection, ‘There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’

Multichoice CEO Mark Rayner said “DStv offers a number of bundles and payment options (annual, or monthly, for 12 or 24 months, with our contract offerings) and additional services like DStv Now to watch live TV anytime, anywhere, Showmax, Box Office and Joox. Subscribers can even stream or download to watch later on DStv Now.”