An increase in the price of DStv Premium is possible if there is an improvement in the South African economy and people receive significant salary increases.

This is word from MultiChoice CFO Tim Jacobs, who spoke to Techcentral about the company’s plans with DStv Premium.

MultiChoice’s annual results for the year ended 31 March 2019 revealed a significant decline in DStv Premium subscribers with an accompanying decline in its average revenue per user.

While the company increased its subscriber base across Africa by 1.6 million users to 15.1 million, its DStv Premium subscribers declined for the third year in a row.

Even a DStv Premium price freeze in 2019 could not stem the tide of subscribers cancelling their Premium subscriptions.

Jacobs admitted that the affordability of DStv Premium is a problem and that the company has seen an acceleration of DStv Premium cancellations over the last year.

This, he said, was aggravated by a struggling economy which means that consumers are under pressure.

Increased competition from streaming services like Netflix also put pressure on MultiChoice’s premium service.

DStv Premium price increase on the cards

In 2019, MultiChoice kept the price of its DStv Premium service the same in an attempt to stop people from cancelling their service.

While the decline in DStv Premium subscribers continued, it does not mean that MultiChoice is not considering a price increase.

Jacobs told Techcentral that if they “see a resurgence in the South African economy, the opportunity to start increasing prices again is back on the table”.

If the economy and consumers remain under pressure, however, he said they will be “quite circumspect” in increasing DStv Premium prices.

DStv Price increases

The graph below shows the price for DStv Premium over the past two decades.

Now read: High prices are killing DStv Premium