MultiChoice Kenya, in its first festive season as a CANAL+ company, today announced significant price cuts on its DStv and GOtv hardware. While the move is wrapped in festive cheer, it lands in a market that is increasingly questioning the company’s focus, arguing that the true barrier for customers is not the one-time decoder cost, but the high price and rigid structure of monthly subscriptions.
The new promotion, effective immediately and running until December 31, 2025, targets new customers. The DStv Zapper decoder price has been cut to KES 850 from KES 1,199, while the GOtv decoder drops to KES 799 from KES 999. Installation accessories like the DStv Dish Kit and GOtv Antenna have also been discounted.
“This festive season, we are turning every moment into a celebration by making it easier for families to connect with the content they love,” said Nzola Miranda, Managing Director at MultiChoice Kenya, in the official press release.
But this focus on hardware discounts feels like a strategic throwback, a solution for a problem that is no longer the primary concern for consumers. The promotion follows a volatile year for the broadcaster, which was only just acquired by France’s CANAL+ in a $2 billion takeover completed in September 2025.
The new European owners made an immediate splash. In October, CANAL+ initiated its first major move: a significant price cut, slashing decoder prices by up to KES 9,000. This was seen as a critical, positive step, directly reversing a deeply unpopular subscription price hike that the previous management had implemented just months earlier in July 2025.
That July price increase, which came amid reports of declining subscriber numbers across Africa (a trend highlighted back in November 2024), had left customers bewildered. Why, many asked, were prices going up as economic pressures mounted and cheaper, more flexible streaming alternatives were gaining ground?
Today’s hardware sale seems to ignore this recent history. For most potential customers, the primary issue has never been the KES 1,200 entry fee for a decoder; it has been the recurring, escalating, monthly subscription.
Furthermore, in the age of the internet, the strategic fixation on decoders is baffling to many analysts. The future of media consumption, even in markets with developing infrastructure, is undeniably streaming. Consumers prefer the flexibility of apps. The real battle is for screen time on phones, tablets, and smart TVs, not for a dedicated box under the television.
Unless MultiChoice is simply trying to sell off “dead stock” of physical decoders, its long-term strategy should be a laser-focus on its DStv app and streaming services. The competition is no longer just local broadcasters; it is global giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, which have won over audiences with on-demand content and, crucially, much lower price points.
This leads to the third, and perhaps most critical, argument that the new hardware promotion fails to address: subscription structure. The traditional DStv model of broad, expensive tiers is a relic. Consumers in 2025 are accustomed to “a la carte” and unbundled services. The core frustration for many DStv users is paying for 150 channels they never watch just to access the 10 they do – primarily live sports.
The real innovation that customers are waiting for from CANAL+ is not a cheaper decoder, but a complete overhaul of the subscription model. Consumers are calling for cheaper, more specific tiers. Why not a sports-only package? A local-content-only package? A movie-and-series package?
As the holiday season approaches, a KES 850 decoder is undeniably a good deal. But it is a deal that fails to address the fundamental challenges MultiChoice faces. It’s an attempt to pull new users in the door using an old key, while existing and potential customers are simply asking the company to build a new, more modern door.
