Popularity ranking · South Africa

The 100 most popular TV Channels in South Africa

This curated ranking covers the 100 largest tv channels in South Africa, ordered by estimated audience size from Rascasse's anonymized search-behavior signals. Out of 2.2k tv channels tracked in South Africa, the 100 ranked here account for the largest measured audience reach. DStv, Sky Sport and SABC 1 lead the list with a combined estimated audience of 9.7M people. Across all 100 entries the average audience size is 362k, and the largest, DStv, reaches around 4.3M people in South Africa. Audience size is the estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with each tv channel, derived from search demand signals. Rankings reflect search-behavior signals collected across South Africa and are refreshed weekly.

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How to read this list

Rank

Position in the Top 100, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.

Audience size

Estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.

Country share

Share of the global audience that is active in South Africa. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.

Avg age

Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in South Africa, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.

Female share

Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in South Africa. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.

Ranking

Rank Audience Audience size Avg age Female share Subtype
26 Create (TV network) 257k 50.5 79.4%
27 TLC (TV network) 255k 34.5 64.2%
28 ESPN 248k 33.3 21.7%
29 Play4 240k 37.9 52.5%
30 Peacock 233k 37.4 44.0% TV / music streaming
31 Yesterday (TV channel) 230k 51.9 42.2%
32 Gold (TV channel) 221k 31.8 67.6%
33 DIRECTV Sports 199k 39.8 50.9%
34 E! News 194k 34.5 77.5% TV series
35 NBC News 179k 41.5 53.8%
36 China Central Television 164k 34.7 39.7%
37 Fox (Poland) 152k 27.3 45.5%
38 Colors (TV channel) 149k
39 Hulu 148k 34.9 48.6% TV / music streaming
40 WREX 147k 43.7 63.2%
41 hotstar 141k 39.4 46.1%
42 ENCA 139k 39.1 48.0%
43 Really (TV channel) 133k 43.8 100.0%
44 E4 (TV channel) 132k 36.7 55.7%
45 supersport 131k 36.9 17.9%
46 M3 (Canadian TV channel) 129k 41.0 55.7%
47 Bayerischer Rundfunk 128k 45.2 48.0%
48 Mnet (TV channel) 118k 41.1 59.3%
49 TV2 (Hungary) 117k 42.9 53.7%
50 LifeStyle Home 108k 37.5 61.8%

Want the full picture for any of these audiences?

Open any profile to see psychographics, top regions, peer affinities and demographic splits — all derived from the same anonymized signals.

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Frequently asked questions

How is this list of the most popular tv channels compiled?

Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across South Africa and ranks each tv channel by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.

How often is the list updated?

The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.

What is the largest tv channel in South Africa?

DStv currently leads with an estimated audience of 4.3M people in South Africa.

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