Nigerians Cancels DSTV As 2.7m Subscribers Boycott Subscriptions Over Cheaper Options
Multichoice’s DSTV is facing its toughest time in over a decade as it lost 2.7 million subscribers between 2023 and end of 2025 due to combination of several factors, including cheaper streaming alternatives, low income and tight economic policies across Africa.
From a high of 17.2 million subscribers in 2023, the pay-TV firm’s subscriptions fell to 14.5 million by the end of 2025 and is expected to fall further due to local and global issues impacting its services. As of June 2024, the company had only lost 1.4 million subscribers.
DSTV has a new owner, Canal+, but it appears that the company still faces a number of challenges. Its customers across Africa are hard hit by shrinking wallets and policy flop-flops. Across Africa, subscribers are switiching to cheaper options, including IPTV, SLTV, Andriod TV box, eVOD, among others. As DSTV raises rates, subcribers are forced to seek alternative streaming platforms that can give them same value at cheaper rates.
Sweeping reforms have been introduced in Nigeria to turn the nation from command and control to market-driven economy, but high level of poverty persists. About 133 million citizens are in multidimensional poverty. The middle-class, which should patronise companies like DSTV, has been wiped by years of policy flip-flops.
South Africa has eliminated power shortages and now tackles logistics bottlenecks preventing the economy from benefitting from a boom in metals including gold and platinum. Yet, the reforms have not lifted millions out of poverty.
“The pace of growth remains insufficient to meaningfully reduce extreme poverty or create the quantity and quality of jobs needed to meet the demands of a rapidly growing labor force,” the World Bank said in October 2025.
“Africa is experiencing the world’s largest and fastest demographic shift. To harness this opportunity, countries must accelerate growth that delivers high-quality jobs.”
Canal+ battled late last year to hold onto 12 Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) channels that were supposed to disappear on January 1st for African subscribers. They are staying on DStv due to a last-minute deal struck on December 31, 2025. The channels are CNN, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Investigation Discovery, TLC, TNT Africa and Travel Channel.
Netflix had announced a $72 billion agreement to buy WBD’s studio and streaming assets, including Warner Studios, HBO and the DC entertainment catalogue. Paramount Skydance had subsequently launched a hostile $108 billion all-cash bid for the entire WBD group. The deal could see Multichoice lose some of its channels.
MultiChoice Nigeria’s subscription revenue declined by 44 percent to $197.74 million in the financial year ended March 2025, down from $355.93 million recorded in the same period a year earlier, as rising inflation and a worsening economic climate triggered a mass exit of subscribers.
