Naspers owned pay TV operator MultiChoice has announced that effective 1 April 2011, many of its bouquets on DStv will see a price increase.

MultiChoice informed their customers that their monthly subscription fees will increase from 1 April 2011. “Wherever possible, the increases have been kept to a minimum,” said Fathima Ebrahim, MultiChoise spokesperson.

Three bouquets are effected by the price increase namely DStv Premium, DStv Compact and DStv Select. PVR acces, DStv Mobile, DStv North and South Indian, PVR add on, DStv Lite, DCC, ZEE TV and DStv Portuguesa rates all remains unchanged.

The new DStv prices are as follows:

The question now remains is when is enough enough? MultiChoice are clearly making large margins of profits from its DStv offering with it having been the only Pay TV operator in South Africa for long and still having exclusive broadcast rights to certain sporting events leaving fans with no other choice then to cough up.

There is however a glimmer of hope for the non sport fans in the form of TopTV.

Many South African XBox players have resorted to using UK or US accounts to play online on XBox Live, however this could become pricey with microsoft’s new subscription pricing.

Microsoft will be increasing the price of their XBox Live Gold subscription fees for all members in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and United States. Chances are that if you are a South African and making use of XBox Live Gold to play online, you will be affected by the new pricing.

As of 1 November 2010 Microsoft will increase the price of certain XBox Live Gold subscription packages, US users have it worst as all subscriptions from the 1 Month to the 12 Month ones are subjected to the new pricing as detailed below.

If you make use of a UK account you will only be affected if you buy on a monthly basis, to avoid being affected by the new rates when they kick in why not upgrade your account now with a 12 month subscription at the normal price.

Another question that remains, now that South Africa will finally be getting Xbox Live soon, how will users currently making use of these overseas account transfer to the local accounts?