Thinus Ferreira analyses which DStv consumers are getting what until the end of December 2025 as part of an upsell promotion, and its catches and exclusions, and looks at why MultiChoice is really doing it.
What DStv decoder consumers are getting
MultiChoice, recently acquired by Canal+, is offering a French-style advent calendar of sorts until 31 December.
Decoder DStv subscribers (and this is important: only consumers watching through a decoder) will be upgraded to a higher DStv package at the exact cost as their current package from this week until 31 December 2025.
Active DStv Compact Plus, DStv Compact, DStv Family, and DStv Access decoder subscribers are upgraded to the next package without having to pay the price of the more expensive bouquet.
DStv Premium subscribers are not receiving any additional content, per se, or content packages such as more TV channels.
Decoder subscribers don’t have to request this levelling up.
The additional blocked TV channels on the one-up tier will be automatically unblocked for new DStv decoder subscribers, for reconnections, for customers on DStv decoder contracts, and for those paying annually.
DStv Premium subscribers are given access to four concurrent DStv streams, instead of the two until 31 December.
MultiChoice refers to this promotional upsell period as its “Thol-iUpsize” campaign.
For DStv decoder subscribers on packages lower than DStv Premium, the additional TV channels they’re getting access to on their decoders will only be available to watch through their decoders. When streaming, these customers will only receive the content and channels they’ve been paying for and not the additional ones.
Another catch: DStv Catch Up content won’t increase. The DStv Catch Up content (the “library” of available shows) will remain locked to just that content that is available on the decoder customer’s existing package before the latest uplevelling.
If a DStv decoder subscriber disconnects for any reason before 31 December, their package will no longer be upgraded to the next tier. On 1 January 2026, all DStv packages will revert to the reduced content per bouquet that consumers are actually paying for.
No additional access to Showmax, MultiChoice’s video streaming service, is included.
Rewards, discounts and other benefits remain linked to a DStv decoder subscriber’s existing paying package. The uplevelling only includes access to the linear TV channels on the higher package.
MultiChoice is also subsidising the price of DStv decoders since 1 November. This makes it cheaper to buy one. According to MultiChoice, it has cut DStv decoder prices to “as low as R299” (excluding installation, or R699 with installation).
Keep in mind that this is for the cheapest DStv decoder buying option. A potential new DStv consumer may pay less than usual, but still more than R300, unless you opt for the bare-bones DStv decoder version.
Byron du Plessis, CEO for pay-TV South Africa at MultiChoice, says in a statement, “What we’re doing with our upsize campaign is part of a bigger value reset at DStv”.
“We’re focused on making DStv more accessible and rewarding, with affordability and customer experience at the heart of our strategy.”
“Together, these initiatives, from Thol-iUpsize and decoder price cuts to the Afcon 2025 broadcast, show the progress we’re already making. DStv and Canal+’s combined scale makes it possible to give customers across Africa more choice and better value than ever before.”
READ | DStv shake-up: New MultiChoice CEO promises major changes to win back subscribers
What MultiChoice is trying to do
It’s an open secret that MultiChoice is struggling, lost millions of DStv subscribers in South Africa and across the rest of the continent (its “Rest of Africa” or RoA market), with shockingly low and disappointing Showmax subscriber numbers growth, which is far below what was originally promised to investors and stakeholders.
MultiChoice lost 3.7 million subscribers over two years, with Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada, who acquired a struggling, legacy pay-TV company that was grappling to pivot in a streaming TV world dominated by Netflix, YouTube, and others.
Canal+ Africa boss David Mignot has now been dispatched to Johannesburg with the task of trying to stem the haemorrhaging.
Cue “Thol-iUpsize”.
This week, MultiChoice was supposed to release its half-year financial results for another six months.
Who knows what it would have been, but since its buyout by Canal+, the requirement from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on MultiChoice to make its next set of interim results public has fallen away.
It’s convenient for both Canal+ and MultiChoice. They now get to keep the prying eyes of investors, stakeholders and the media away from how badly DStv and Showmax are likely doing in terms of subscriber numbers after the previous shocking half-year and annual results.
Not having to publish half-year results means that Canal+ and DStv can try and make hay in the meantime (“Merry Christmas!). MultiChoice is also aligning its financial year with Canal+’s, which runs from the beginning of every calendar year, rather than April.
READ | A peek into the Canal+ crystal ball and what lies ahead for MultiChoice
Canal+ and MultiChoice are therefore utilising the current time period and Thol-iUpsize to try to upsell existing DStv consumers to higher packages and to acquire new subscribers.
Thol-iUpsize, as a type of gateway drug, might very well get some existing DStv decoder customers to switch to a more expensive package “permanently” after getting a taste of new TV channels.
This will help increase the important acronym of ARPU (average revenue per user), which is crucial for MultiChoice, the revenue it generates per subscriber.
MultiChoice is also working to potentially attract new DStv sign-ups by subsidising decoders. It is effectively losing money to actively lower the entry barrier so that potential new subscribers will bite and buy.
By subsidising DStv decoder prices (remember that it costs MultiChoice money to order and manufacture decoders with a certain production cost per unit), MultiChoice is turning the sale of DStv decoders in retail into a loss leader - not just in South Africa, but across Africa.
Like Matthew McConaughey’s character said in The Wolf of Wall Street film: “Pump those numbers up!” because numbers are what it’s all about here.
MultiChoice wants to sell as many decoders as possible to new DStv subscribers (and is willing to pay subsidies and take a hit on it now).
The hope is that some of those subscribers might very well remain as “90-day actives” after January 2026 - customers who will then contribute to making MultiChoice’s overall subscriber numbers appear less unfavourable when the next interim financial reporting period arrives.
While consumers might experience the “upsize” and cheaper decoders from their viewpoint as a type of Christmas gift during the festive period, this period and these corporate promotional actions are also a gift for MultiChoice.
It’s an effort to use the available time to upsell consumers (with some who might stick to paying more), to try and bring churn down and slow the rate of existing subs cancelling, as well as absorbing some pain through taking a hit by selling decoders cheaper with the hope of longer-term gain through catching and keeping new subscribers.
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- Thinus Ferreira is an independent freelance writer reporting on the television industry. Ferreira has contributed to publications such as City Press, Rapport and Variety.
