DStv Premium sits at the top of MultiChoice’s Nigerian lineup, and it carries the price tag to match. At ₦44,500 a month, it costs more than double most rival packages, so the question worth answering is not just what channels you get, but whether that gap is justified for how you actually watch television.
This guide covers what DStv Premium costs in 2026, the channels it includes by category, what changed this year, and how honestly it compares to the cheaper Compact Plus package sitting just beneath it.
What DStv Premium Costs in 2026
DStv Premium currently costs ₦44,500 per month in Nigeria. That places it well above Compact Plus at ₦30,000, Compact at ₦19,000, and the budget tiers, with Padi at ₦4,400 being the entry point into the service.
There is a genuine piece of good news for subscribers this year. Following Canal+’s acquisition of MultiChoice, the company confirmed it would not raise DStv and GOtv subscription prices in 2026, breaking a long-running pattern of annual increases. So the ₦44,500 figure has held steady rather than climbing as it has in previous years.
What You Actually Get on DStv Premium
Premium carries over 160 channels, including 38 in high definition. Rather than listing every one, which changes constantly, here is what the package actually delivers by category, which is what matters when deciding whether to pay for it.
Sport
Sport is the single strongest reason to choose Premium over anything cheaper. The package includes over 16 SuperSport channels covering football, rugby, tennis, and motorsport. This is the fullest sport lineup available on any pay-TV service in Nigeria, and it includes dedicated channels for the Premier League alongside broad coverage of European football, combat sport, and international competition.
If live premium football drives your subscription decision, this is where Premium earns its cost. No competing package from GOtv or StarTimes comes close on breadth of live sport.
Movies
Premium carries the full M-Net Movies range, which is the tier’s other main draw. That includes M-Net Movies Premiere, where new blockbusters land on television first before moving to the themed channels, alongside dedicated action, all-stars, and family movie channels. Studio Universal adds further Hollywood output.
These movie channels are largely absent or heavily reduced on the lower packages, so film-heavy households feel the difference immediately.
Series and General Entertainment
The general entertainment side runs through M-Net and 1Magic, carrying international series, drama, and reality output. Premium also adds a deeper spread of lifestyle, factual, and documentary channels than the tiers below it, covering history, science, nature, and true crime.
Nigerian and African Content
The Africa Magic family sits at the centre of local programming, spanning Africa Magic Showcase, Family, Epic, and Urban, alongside ROK for Nollywood film and series. These channels run across several DStv tiers, so they are not exclusive to Premium, but Premium carries the full range rather than a subset.
Kids, News and International
Premium includes the widest children’s lineup, covering Cartoon Network, Disney channels, Nickelodeon, and CBeebies. On news, it carries CNN International, BBC World News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and the main Nigerian channels including Channels TV and AIT. A set of foreign-language channels covering Italian, French, Chinese, and Portuguese programming rounds out the package.
It is worth noting that CNN International and Cartoon Network were both scheduled to leave DStv on 1 January 2026 after negotiations with Warner Bros Discovery broke down. A late agreement kept those channels, along with ten others, on the platform.
What Changed in 2026: Showmax Is Gone
This is the most important update for anyone comparing DStv Premium against older guides, and most of them have it wrong.
For years, DStv Premium included free access to Showmax, MultiChoice’s streaming service. That is no longer true. Canal+ announced on 5 March 2026 that Showmax would be discontinued, and the platform shut down permanently on 30 April 2026 after sustained financial losses. Many articles still ranking on this topic continue to list free Showmax as a Premium benefit. It does not exist.
What replaced it is DStv Stream. Selected Showmax Originals and popular titles, including Nigerian productions such as Wura, Flawsome, and The Real Housewives of Lagos, moved into a dedicated section within the DStv Stream app. That content is accessible to subscribers on Compact, Compact Plus, and Premium packages, so streaming access is no longer a Premium-only perk. Canal+ has signalled it will eventually roll out its own streaming service across sub-Saharan Africa, so this arrangement may shift again.
Premium or Compact Plus: Is the Extra ₦14,500 Worth It?
This is the decision most people are actually trying to make, and the honest answer depends almost entirely on sport.
Compact Plus at ₦30,000 already carries strong football, including a dedicated SuperSport Premier League channel and UEFA Champions League coverage. For a great many viewers, that covers everything they genuinely sit down to watch. Premium’s advantage is depth rather than headline access: more SuperSport channels, broader coverage of secondary competitions and sports beyond football, and the fuller M-Net Movies range.
So the test is simple. If you follow rugby, tennis, motorsport, or niche competitions, and you want the largest movie catalogue on television, Premium is defensible. If your sport viewing begins and ends with Premier League and Champions League football, Compact Plus delivers that at ₦14,500 less every month, which is ₦174,000 saved across a year.
Many Premium subscribers are paying for a lineup they rarely reach. Being honest about your own viewing habits is worth more here than any channel count.
How Premium Compares to Cheaper Services
Stepping outside DStv entirely, the gap becomes stark. GOtv’s most expensive package, Supa+, costs ₦16,800 a month. StarTimes tops out around ₦9,800 for its Super bouquet. Premium costs more than both combined.
What that money buys is the sport lineup and the movie catalogue, nothing else. On general entertainment, local Nigerian content, kids’ programming, and news, the cheaper services cover the essentials perfectly well. If you would not miss SuperSport’s full range, the case for Premium collapses quickly. Our comparison of DStv, GOtv, and StarTimes breaks down exactly where each service wins, and for households considering leaving DStv altogether, our guide to the best alternatives to DStv in Nigeria covers the cheaper routes.
Managing Your Premium Subscription
You can subscribe or upgrade through the DStv app, the DStv website, your bank’s USSD or internet banking, or authorised dealers. Upgrades take effect immediately once you pay the difference. Downgrades apply from the start of your next billing cycle, so you stay on Premium until the current month expires.
If you are travelling or taking a break, DStv allows subscriptions to be suspended by contacting their support, which pauses billing until you reactivate. Keeping track of your renewal date avoids the scramble of channels disappearing mid-month, and our guide on checking your DStv subscription expiry date walks through how to see it from your decoder.
Who DStv Premium Is Really For
Premium makes clear sense for one type of household: serious sport viewers who watch beyond football, and film enthusiasts who want the widest movie selection available on Nigerian television. For those viewers, nothing else on the market matches it, and the price reflects a genuinely superior product.
For everyone else, it is worth pausing before renewing. The removal of Showmax narrows Premium’s advantage, since streaming content now reaches Compact subscribers too. The channels most Nigerian families watch daily, meaning Africa Magic, the news channels, and the kids’ lineup, appear well below Premium in the package structure.
Start from what you actually watched last month rather than what the channel list promises. If Compact Plus or even Compact covers it, the saving is substantial and immediate. Channel lineups and package contents change regularly, so confirm the current list before subscribing using the official DStv Nigeria package comparison tool, which stays up to date in a way no third-party list ever can.
Frenzy valentine is a passionate blogger, developer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and author of myfreshgists.com.