Why DStv Subscription Rates Vary from Country to Country

DStv or Digital Satellite Television is a Multichoice digital satellite TV service that operates in Africa and provides various bouquets that offer a wide range of programming with movies, music, lifestyle and culture, sports, documentaries, news, religion among many other categories.

Customers who wish to enjoy the services that are provided by DStv have to subscribe to the bouquets of their choice and these subscriptions are not uniform from country to country.

‎Subscription rates for DStv bouquets vary from one country to another because the pricing determination is based on a number of factors such as the cost of doing business, available infrastructure and cost of providing the service in that country.

Price differences from one country to another may also be due to the accommodation of differing tax regimes and operational cost structure in a given country. More so, these costs may also be influenced by the economies of scale that may or may not be present in a country.

For instance, DStv subscription rates in South Africa are different from those in Zambia because the two countries fall in different markets which are priced differently. Pricing for DStv is done according to markets and currently, the company has three markets namely South Africa, Nigeria and the general market and therefore, South Africa pays less than any other country in the region.

The price of pay television according to DStv in a particular market is determined by issues such as taxation, enforcement of constitutional laws as well as levels of piracy and at the moment, countries like Zambia and Kenya are in the general market category where they are currently paying US$82 for the premium bouquet except for Zimbabwe, which is paying US$77 excluding value added tax.

The hike in DStv subscription rates in Kenya has been attributed to depreciation of major African currencies (Kenya’s included) against the US Dollar as well as satellite and channel costs.