The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has said that the country’s subscription TV market has become increasingly competitive, posing a significant threat to MultiChoice’s historical dominance.on Icasa’s preliminary findings on competition within the subscription TV market in South Africa. The document’s publication follows several public hearings and stakeholder submissions to Icasa, which formed part of an inquiry into South Africa’s TV market.
This latest discussion document includes the latest developments within the subscription TV market. According to Icasa’s latest findings, several factors have contributed to MultiChoice’s decline in market dominance. Cord-cutting occurs when users cancel their traditional pay-TV services in favour of alternative video services, which in this case are over-the-top (OTT) streaming services that typically use an Internet connection, such as Netflix. This is opposed to cord-shaving, where users downgrade their traditional TV subscription to use it with an OTT service. While the decrease in DStv subscribers was redacted from the document, MultiChoice’s annual report for the year ending 31 March 2024 revealed that active DStv subscribers in South AfricaIn contrast, the number of OTT subscribers in South Africa increased from 3.7 million in 2017 to 8.3 million in 2024, according to data in the document sourced from Statista. This is primarily attributed to the cost of OTT services compared to DStv bouquets and the significant decrease in the price of uncapped Internet services. Icasa highlights DStv’s attempt to make its offerings more attractive by bundling its OTT service, Showmax, and Internet subscriptions with its TV bouquets. The watchdog’s findings also illustrated how effective competition prevailed despite DStv’s sports rights dominance. However, Icasa has not definitively concluded whether a lack of competitive bidding or DStv outbidding competitors causes this dominanc