DStv Flex: How you’ll choose your sports packages

Presuming Multichoice decides to go ahead with its unbundled premium subscription offering, DStv Flex customers will have the ability to add and remove certain content packs at will. Of course, the broadcaster hasn’t confirmed whether it’s launching Flex (or something similar) yet, but recent rumours point to it being considered.

Historically, the broadcaster hasn’t offered users much in terms of choice — its various subscription packages offer either the full suite of channels or just a few of ‘em. Flex could bring more options in terms of flexibility, but it’ll still cost you a few hundred bucks. 

DStv Flex-ing its sports options

According to TV journalist Thinus Ferreira, users will pay R300p/m up front for a base DStv Flex package, which’ll include an Entertainment pack that’s got 67 Premium channels lined up. On top of this, they’ll have the option to add additional packs, three of which include sports content from SuperSport and ESPN.

Sports Pack 1 is where you’ll find most of the football channels, motorsport, golf, tennis and ESPN channels. This one’ll add R350p/m to your bill. So if you’re keen on football, you’ll pay a total of around R650p/m (inclusive of the base Flex package cost). 

Sports Pack 2 is where you’ll find rugby and cricket, in addition to some more tennis, golf and ESPN 2 content. Here you’ll also pay R350p/m on top of the base R300p/m. That means most users will be able to either choose the ‘rugby’ pack, or the ‘football’ pack, unless they go for option 3…

Sports Pack 3 is all-encompassing and will include all the sports channels your heart desires. Which is basically the full DStv sports catalogue Premium subscribers have access to right now. This one’ll cost you R500p/m on top of the R300pm.

Basic Entertainment Package	67 entertainment, movie, lifestyle, documentary, kids, news, music, and religious channels	R300
Optional add-ons (month-to-month)
Sports Pack 1	SuperSport EPL SuperSport PSL SuperSport Football SuperSport Golf SuperSport Motorsport SuperSport Action Supersport La Liga Supersport Tennis Supersport Variety 1-4 ESPN ESPN 2	R350
Sports Pack 2	SuperSport Rugby SuperSport Cricket SuperSport Golf SuperSport Motorsport SuperSport Action Supersport Tennis Supersport Variety 1-4 ESPN 2	R350
Sports Pack 3	SuperSport Grandstand SuperSport Rugby SuperSport Cricket SuperSport EPL SuperSport PSL SuperSport Football SuperSport Golf SuperSport Motorsport SuperSport Action Supersport La Liga Supersport Tennis Supersport Variety 1-4 ESPN ESPN 2	R500
Movie Pack	M-Net Movies 1 M-Net Movies 2 fliekNET	R100

Of course, paying R800 per month for sports + the base Entertainment package may seem counterproductive, considering a DStv Premium sub currently costs R830p/m. 

The difference with DStv Flex is, however, that users will be able to switch packages on and off on a monthly basis as they deem fit. If you don’t want to pay for sports on a particular month, you don’t have to. Alternatively, it may be worth just looking at a Showmax Pro subscription for R450p/m. 

Whether the method works for both subscribers and DStv remains be seen, which may be why the entertainment provider hasn’t officially announced the offering yet. There may be pricing tweaks or other considerations (like what the service would do to the existing subscriber base) to iron out before DStv lets it out into the wild.