This is according to results from a DStv survey MyBroadband ran at the end of October 2018.
The survey was taken by 7,036 MyBroadband readers and forum members, a tech-savvy and informed segment of the South African population.
Of the participants who took the survey, 79% were current or former DStv subscribers, while 21% were not subscribers.
The non-subscriber respondents were then asked if they planned to sign up for a DStv package this year. Their feedback was:
Yes - 21%
No - 74%
Unsure - 5%
Respondents who were active subscribers were then asked the big question: If DStv hikes prices in 2019, will they cancel their account?
As international trends have shown, particularly in the US, MultiChoice will be faced with a difficult decision in 2019.
It will have to choose between continuing to hike DStv Premium prices and lose more customers to Netflix, or cut prices and hope it can make a digital-only version of DStv work.
MultiChoice has increased its DStv Premium prices in South Africa every year for the past 18 years, due to increasing costs in the business.
And while customer numbers continued to climb, this changed in late 2015/early 2016 when Netflix was expanding across the world and officially launched in South Africa.
At a current price of R169 per month for the top package, Netflix offers excellent entertainment content which competes against DStv Premium.
It does not show live sport, though, which SuperSport on DStv Premium dominates.
This has not stopped DStv users dropping Premium and taking Netflix instead, however, and MultiChoice has acknowledged the streaming player as a major threat.
The results from the survey show that this trend will continue in 2019 if DStv prices are hiked once again.
Of the current DStv subscribers who took part in the survey, this was the response to: "If DStv increases prices in 2019, will you cancel your account?"
Yes - 81%
No - 19%
Subscriber drop
The graph below shows the relationship between DStv Premium prices and subscriber numbers since 2012 - and how the proliferation of Netflix from 2015 onwards has impacted the service.
