All right folks, the jig is up. Multichoice has finally cottoned onto the fact that people have been sharing their passwords for DStv Now in order to skirt around the need for multiple subscriptions.

To date, it has been a widely accepted, if somewhat frowned upon practice that people would share their DStv Now passwords with friends and family in order to give them access to content sans a set top box.

This is a similar practice to what people did for Netflix, but the streaming platform has been looking to put an end to this.

Now Multichoice is doing the same, with the change set to take place from next month.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to counteract password sharing and piracy, while continuing to bring you the best viewing experience, we will be introducing measures to limit concurrent streaming,” it explained in a notice.

“From 22 March 2022, customers will be limited to streaming DStv on one device at a time. They will still be able to watch previously downloaded content on a second device,” it added.

As such, multiple streaming with a single subscription will no longer be permitted, which will likely upset quite a few customers out there.

This is not limited to South Africa either, with the change being implemented across all African territories where DStv Now is available.

“The change will made to all DStv subscriptions across Africa, however, only customers making use of more than one concurrent stream will be directly affected by the change,” the notice continues.

It should be noted that multiple people can be logged into the same DStv subscription profile, but without the streaming, it will probably matter little to customers.

“The number of devices you can have registered for streaming does not change (You are allowed up to four registered devices),” the notice clarifies.

Whether Multichoice will stick to this decision when 22nd March rolls around, remains to be seen, but given that Netflix and other streaming services are being bundled into decoders, the company will more than likely stick to its guns.

As such, it may be time to inform friends and family that their access is about to elapse.