MultiChoice, a pay-TV provider in Africa, has announced a price change for its monthly subscription plans in Kenya for DStv, GOtv, and Showmax that will take effect on August 1st, 2025.
Showmax experienced a large decrease across all plans, whereas DStv and GOtv saw increases ranging from four percent to seven percent.
MultiChoice clarified in a report published by a Kenyan platform that the improvement is a direct result of growing operating expenses and expenditures on both domestic and foreign content.
The South African company also mentioned that the review is in accordance with its yearly price adjustment.
The price increases coincide with another round of adjustments, as consumers already perceive the products to be pricey and unaffordable.
Customers’ current perception is reflected in the 1.2 million drop in active subscribers to 14.5 million and the eight percent YoY decline in earnings.
Prices of new DStv and GOtv subscription packages
The Access plan went from KES1,350 to KES1,450 in the most recent price change for different DStv packages.
The Compact plan increased from KES3,900 to KES4,200, the Compact Plus plan from KES6,800 to KES7,300, the family plan from KES2,100 to KES2,250, and the premium plan from KES11,000 to KES11,700. But the recently launched XtraView plan, which costs KES 1,700 a month, saw no increase in price from the KES 750 Lite plan.
With the GOtv price change, GOtv Value dropped from KES699 to KES599, but GOtv Plus stayed at KES999. On the other hand, Supa went from KES2,099 to KES2,199, GOtv Max went from KES1,599 to KES1,699, and Supa Plus went from KES3,000 to KES3,199.
On the other hand, Showmax’s subscription plan experienced a general decline due to increased competition from rivals such as YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video.
Therefore, among other things, the Premier League (mobile only) dropped from KES500 to KES450, GE Mobile dropped from KES300 to KES200, and the General Entertainment (GE) plan dropped from KES650 to KES550.
Challenges faced by MultiChoice across African markets
Growing pressures across multiple African markets have left MultiChoice Group in a disastrous position over the last two years.
The devaluation of African currencies against the US dollar since 2023 has reportedly cost MultiChoice $576.5 million and resulted in the loss of 2.8 million subscribers.
The pay-TV provider blames the decline on several factors, including significant investments in its streaming service, Showmax; fierce competition from international streaming platforms; widespread piracy; and macroeconomic pressures.
“Although reflecting an improvement on FY24 trends, this indicates ongoing broad-based pressure across the group’s entire customer base,” MultiChoice told investors in its financial statement.
MultiChoice’s continuous price increment in Nigeria, others
Despite worries about its declining popularity, MultiChoice has kept raising subscription costs in important markets like South Africa, Nigeria, and Uganda.
In the Nigerian market, for example, MultiChoice has increased subscription fees for the past two of the last three years.
April 2023 saw the first increment, November 2023 saw another, and April 2024 saw the announcement of the most recent increase, which went into effect on May 1.
The price of the DStv Compact bouquet increased from ₦15,700 to ₦19,000 as a result of Multichoice raising subscription costs across a range of packages.
The company attributed the subscriber loss in Nigeria to several factors, including fuel scarcity, power grid collapse, and high inflation.
Additionally, between 2023 and 2025, the market was responsible for 77 per cent of the subscriber loss observed throughout its Rest of Africa (RoA) operations.
Furthermore, the Group disclosed that its overall performance has been materially impacted by structural industry changes in the video entertainment sector, including the growth of social media, streaming services, and piracy.
The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) fined MultiChoice’s Nigerian subsidiary an astounding ₦766,242,500 on Sunday, July 6, for violating the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDP Act), further compounding the company’s operational difficulties. Beginning in the second quarter of 2024, the investigation turned up alarming reports of subscriber privacy violations.