Canal+, which now controls South Africa-based pay-TV operator MultiChoice, has reportedly committed to trimming around Rand 7.5 billion (€400m) in its annual costs over the next few years. MultiChoice’s expenses budget topped Rand 46 billion in 2025 but recent renegotiated content supply deals will already have started to trim those fees. MultiChoice spent Rand 20.4 […]

South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC says it has no funds to adequately cover an upcoming local government election. The state’s Treasury has turned down a request from SABC for 120 million Rand (€6.2m) for dedicated funding. SABC is appealing to South African parliament’s Communications Committee to intervene. “Without funding, the SABC does not have the […]

February 13th will see the launch in South Africa of Digital Radio using the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) format. Aldred Dreyer, chairman of the DRM South Africa Group, the organisation that’s spearheading the development, roll-out and promotion of DRM radio in the country, has confirmed the trial will commence which follows the granting of a […]

South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA has published draft regulations designed to tighten pricing operations at Sentech, which is the government-owned transmission business. Sentech handles the nation’s transmission of broadcast TV and radio signals. The publication of the new draft rules, in the government’s official Gazette, follows on from a one-year investigation into Sentech’s pricing structure. […]

South African–born Elon Musk has worked hard over the past few months in attempts to gain permission to launch SpaceX’s Starlink broadband–by–satellite service in South Africa. But far from nearing those permissions, there are signs that he still has a mountain to climb. Local reports say that political party Rise Mzansi’s leader, Songezo Zibi, and […]

A fall of a few thousand in any market for a pay-TV organisation is a worry. Multiply that to a total of 2.8 million cancellations over the past two years and it shows that South Africa’s DStv, even under its new Canal+ owners, has a mountain to climb. But the numbers are worrying. Back in […]

South Africa has amended its ‘Black Economic Empowerment’ (BEE) rules, allowing Starlink to operate via rural school internet investments instead of insisting on the traditional – and to date rigid – 30 per cent equity stake for local people and businesses. The decision could pave the way for rapid satellite broadband rollout amid digital divide […]

November 2025 marked 15 years of the Netflix ISP Speed Index – a monthly readout on which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide the best prime time Netflix streaming.  Starting in 2026, the streaming giant says it will continue publishing monthly performance data on the ISP Speed Index site, but these updates will shift to a […]

Canal+ is in a carriage dispute with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) in South Africa. The latest threat is that if the dispute is not resolved then a slew of channels will disappear from DStv. This would include Discovery and CNN. Twelve channels are involved in the initial dispute, and the current position is that the […]