DStv Flex, the ‘Choose your own channels’ package planned

We know, it sounds like a ‘choose your own adventure’ game. But DStv, the Multichoice-owned pay-TV subscription service is reportedly working on a premium package that’ll unbundle some of its sports and movie channels, giving their viewers the choice of what they want in their packages. Almost like Build-a-Bear but for DStv channels, right?

According to Thinus Ferreira, the entertainment reporter, the pay-TV service iMultichoice is gauging interest in a more ‘flexible’ service called DStv Flex. It’ll give users more power in choosing what they want to watch on the platform. 

“As part of a new possible DStv bouquet structuring plan, MultiChoice is looking at allowing DStv subscribers to choose their sport channels – the most expensive content – separately in the form of 3 different, optional, add-on sports packages each containing various bundled SuperSport and ESPN channels,” Ferreira reports. 

This will, indeed, be one of the biggest changes to hit the broadcaster in the last 25 years. Users have been frothing at the mouth for easier access to sports content in this country. This may just be the opportunity to pull in all of those sports fanatics who don’t want to spend R800 per month on a Premium sub. 

How DStv Flex will work

Customers who sign up for Flex will pay a compulsory R300p/m fee — and every additional ‘pack’ will stack from there. That fee includes an Entertainment pack that’s got 67 Premium channels lined up. 

From here, they’ll be able to add between one and three sports packs — that’s if you want to sport at all. Each one of three sports packages includes a different combination of SuperSport and ESPN channels. Two of the sports packs cost R350 /m while there’s one priced at R500p/m — and that’s on top of the base cost. 

While it sounds like a whole lot — the nice feature here is that customers will have the power to switch certain packages on and off at any time according to their needs. So if you want to take a break from sport in general, just cancel it for a while. Easy. 

“MultiChoice’s new calculus is premised on the idea that if sport, and rugby as a content subset, were a separate add-on package, then at least some DStv subscribers would choose to remain subscribed to a basic entertainment package during the part of the year when certain sports or championships are out of season and not taking place,” Ferreira says.