In South Africa, subscribing to ten popular video streaming services costs less than R1,500 monthly, offering a wide array of genres and international and local content. Improved broadband options have made online entertainment more accessible than traditional TV. DStv remains dominant in sports, challenging international competitors despite higher costs.
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By Hanno Labuschagne*
Subscribing to ten of South Africa’s most popular video streaming services will cost less than R1,500 monthly.
While that price might still seem steep, it will provide a fantastic range of content covering numerous genres, all of which can be enjoyed at home.
South Africa’s broadband connectivity penetration and affordability have improved drastically over the past few years.
Numerous uncapped Internet packages using various technologies — including fibre-to-the-home, fixed-LTE, and fixed-5G — are available starting from around R500.
These have made it possible for many more households to consume the bulk of their entertainment online instead of using terrestrial or satellite TV.
MyBroadband assembled a selection of the best streaming services with a combination of international and local content.
To start with, we included four major global streaming services — Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+.
Subscribing to the best plans on each of these services will set you back around R542 per month.
That is less than the most expensive subscription in our bundle — DStv Stream Premium — which costs R799 per month on its own.
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This package offers all the same content as a regular satellite-based DStv Premium subscription.
However, it can only be accessed via a browser or the DStv Stream app, requiring a fast and uncapped Internet connection.
While DStv has struggled to compete with the international services on movies and TV shows, it is still unrivalled in South Africa regarding sport.
In reality, subscribing to a legal international streaming service or combination of services with the same extent of relevant live sports coverage as Supersport would be difficult, if not impossible.
Many international rivals require a subscription to a virtual private network (VPN) service, and some only accept bank cards issued in their countries of origin.
In certain instances, they also require a phone number from that country, which can be difficult to acquire while abroad.
In addition, none of the services offer sports curated specifically for South African audiences, so key tournaments or events are often not available.
The combined cost of all the services needed to compete with DStv Premium will also be substantially more expensive.
Aside from sports, a DStv Premium subscription includes a free Showmax Entertainment plan worth an additional R89 per month.
In addition to MultiChoice’s homegrown content and Showmax Originals, the service offers many sought-after international productions, including HBO’s highly popular TV shows.
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For more local content, two other streaming subscriptions we added to our bundle are eVOD and SABC+.
The only specialist offering on our list was Crunchyroll’s Mega Fan subscription, which provides access to a vast catalogue of anime.
Lastly, we also included a YouTube Premium subscription.
While YouTube’s content is primarily community-generated, a lot of what’s on offer is of high quality and truly entertaining.
The main benefit of a Premium subscription is that you can watch content without any ads, significantly improving the user experience.
The table below shows the 10 services that make up our ultimate video streaming plan, ranked from most to least expensive.
Ultimate video streaming planServiceMain attractionMonthly priceDStv Stream PremiumSport, news, documentaries, reality TVR799.00Disney+ PremiumWalt Disney, Marvel, Star WarsR139.00Netflix PremiumNetflix Original movies and showsR199.00Crunchyroll Mega FanAnimeR49.00Apple TV+High-quality Apple productionsR124.99Amazon Prime VideoAmazon Original movies and showsR79.00YouTube PremiumAd-free YouTube contentR71.99eVOD PremiumeVOD Originals, and on-demand repeats of soaps and other TV showsR29.99SABC+Live free-to-air channels, news bulletins, and on-demand repeats of soaps and other TV showsFreeShowmax EntertainmentHBO shows, Showmax Original movies and showsFree with DStv PremiumTotalR1,491.97
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This article was originally published by My Broadband and has been republished with permission.
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