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
76 Velocity (TV channel) 78k 45.9 8.4%
77 Al Jazeera 78k 41.6 37.0%
78 Dave (TV channel) 78k 37.3 52.5%
79 E! (Europe) 78k 27.6 81.4%
80 Eurosport 77k 41.0 32.3%
81 Sky Go 77k 38.8 30.6% Pay TV
82 Star Plus 76k 36.5 54.0%
83 atv 75k 32.2 39.5%
84 CNBC 72k 36.4 30.9%
85 Al Jazeera English 70k 36.8 26.7%
86 Cartoon Network 69k 33.6 62.6%
87 ITV (TV channel) 68k 44.3 49.1%
88 Challenge (TV channel) 68k 30.1 81.8%
89 Funimation 68k 30.9 44.9%
90 Documentary Channel (TV channel) 66k 41.4 53.4%
91 KykNET 66k 37.9 58.1%
92 Bloomberg 64k 38.0 31.9%
93 CBS Corporation 63k 39.2 46.9%
94 HBO MAX 62k 36.0 51.1% TV / music streaming
95 IGN 61k 31.5 37.4%
96 CBS News 61k 40.1 53.4%
97 AMC (TV channel) 58k 37.2 48.2%
98 ETC (TV channel) 58k 23.5 0.0%
99 Channel 5 (UK) 57k 33.0 53.6%
100 Nine News 57k 42.0 43.3%

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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