DStv Premium Highlights December 2025

News 01 December 2025

The Gilded Age, Christmas specials, Royal Variety and more December Premium treats.

Our Upsize campaign gives DStv Compact and Compact Plus subscribers access to every DStv Premium channel until midnight on 31 December. So we’ve hand picked some highlights to welcome you to the best of DStv.

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We’ve packed in seasonal treats like Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking Season 2, and the All Creatures Great and Small and Strictly Come Dancing Christmas specials, along with the New Year’s Eve Royal Variety Performance. There’s fresh drama in HBO’s The Gilded Age Season 3 and Task, and the BBC’s Showtrial Season 2. Movie lovers can see Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Die Kwiksilwers. And for sports fans, we’ve stuffed the stocking with the golf documentary Greens & Gold from the makers of Chasing the Sun, the United Rugby Championship, UEFA Champions League Cup, and the start of the Proteas vs India T20 International. And the festive fun is just beginning!

Tis the season for drama!

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The Gilded Age

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes takes us back to New York City in March 1883, as ambitious upstarts Bertha (Carrie Coon) and George Russell (Morgan Spencer) and their old‑money neighbours, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), face shifting fortunes. This season’s real-life incidents include the lionising of society portrait artist John Singer Sargent, and the uproar around Ward McAllister's (Nathan Lane) tattletale book about New York's elite: Society As I Have Found It.

Stream The Gilded Age Season 3 from Thursday, 11 December at 9PM on M-Net Channel 101. Binge Season 1-2 on Showmax.

Task

Writer-creator Brad Ingelsby’s (Mare of Easttown) HBO crime thriller scored a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), an empathetic former priest turned FBI agent, is tapped to lead a task force assigned to a string of violent robberies targeting houses run by the Dark Hearts biker drug gang. Look out for South Africa’s Thuso Mbedu as local detective Aleah Clinton, who gets assigned to Tom’s team of misfits.

Stream Task Season 1 from Wednesday, 17 December at 9PM on M-Net Channel 101. Available to binge on Showmax.

Showtrial

BBC anthology legal drama series. After hit-and-run victim and high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood (Barney Fishwick) names PC Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha) in his dying breath, defence solicitor Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) and CPS lawyer Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) go all-out to build their opposing cases for Justin’s trial – with an old grudge between them at stake. But growing outrage over police violence threatens the ideal of a fair trial when the public catches wind of the incident.

Stream Showtrial Season 2 from Friday, 19 December at 8PM on M-Net Channel 101.

Death In Paradise Christmas Special

Four co-workers wake up with a hangover from hell after their company’s Christmas party, only to find a stranger floating dead in the pool of their villa on the Caribbean island of Saint Marie. DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) and his team have a conundrum on their hands when the murder weapon itself has an alibi – as the forensics team matches it to a gun that was in a locked drawer in the UK at the time of the killing.

Stream the Death In Paradise Christmas Special on Thursday, 25 December, and Friday, 26 December at 8PM on BBC Brit Channel 120. Available on DStv Stream.

All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special

This cosy BBC series is based on the bestselling Yorkshire vet novels by James Herriot. Despite wartime rationing, James (Nicholas Ralph) and Helen (Rachel Shenton) are preparing for a special Christmas – and their baby son Jimmy’s first birthday at Skeldale House – while fellow vet Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) collects homing pigeons for a special mission. But their housekeeper, Mrs Hall (Anna Madeley), gets tragic news about the fate of her son’s ship, the HMS Repulse.

Stream the All Creatures Great and Small Christmas Special on Monday, 22 December at 8PM on BBC Brit Channel 120. Available on DStv Stream

The star on top shows

Royal Variety Performance

South African Dancing with the Stars pro Johannes Radebe will end 2025 performing a number from the drag musical Kinky Boots in front of members of the Royal Family at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in London for this annual New Year’s Eve variety fundraiser, which will be seen by over 150 million viewers worldwide. Also look out for an extravaganza from the cast of Paddington The Musical, and America’s Got Talent winners Adrian Stoica and Hurricane the border collie.

Watch the Royal Variety Performance on Wednesday, 31 December at 10PM on M-Net Channel 101.

Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special

Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman host this special celebrity dance spectacular, with judges Anton du Beke, Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas. As the festive tracks like I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by Leona Lewis play, look out for comedian Josh Widdicombe (in a penguin suit with a fish in his mouth), RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Tayce (the first drag queen on the show), and a musical performance from the Spice Girls’ Emma Bunton.

Watch the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special on Thursday, 25 December at 6:30PM on BBC Brit Channel 120. Available on DStv Stream.

Merry mayhem movies

Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning

For the final MI film, Tom Cruise came to South Africa to film a death-defying biplane and burning parachute sequence against the backdrop of Mpumalanga’s Blyde River Canyon, KZN’s Drakensberg mountains, and the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast. At stake? Humanity itself, as Ethan Hunt (Tom) and the IMF team hunt everywhere from a submarine under the polar ice cap, to a doomsday cavern, for a way to stop rogue AI system The Entity.

Stream Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning on Sunday, 28 December at 8PM on M-Net Channel 101. On Showmax from Wednesday, 17 December, where you can find every MI movie, ever.

Die Kwiksilwers

This holiday delight won 2025’s Audience Prize at Silwerskerm. Eighty-something widow Elsabe Marais (Lida Botha) escapes her carer to take a three-day road trip across the Karoo with her three best friends, Anna (June van Merch), Mienkie (Susanne Beyers) and Katie (Theresa Sedras), to experience a meteor shower in Sutherland. But Elsabe’s overprotective son Wikus (Jacques Bessenger) is hot on their tail, determined to stop his menace of a mother before she crashes her car again.

Stream Die Kwiksilwers on Sunday, 14 December at 8:05 PM on M-Net Channel 101. On Showmax from Monday, 15 December.

Divine December documentaries

Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid

Actor Dennis Quaid chats to historians, archaeology professors and religious scholars about some of humanity’s most treasured sites and relics, and about the beliefs that sustain faith. The season begins with discussions about life after death, after which we’ll see inside temples and fortresses around the world, seek out the truth about terrifying beasts of legend and natural events that were labelled the wrath of the gods, learn the tales behind weapons and warriors, and more.

Stream Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid Season 2 from Monday, 15 December at 8:15 on History Channel 186. Available on DStv Stream.

Rome Underground

In 2023, construction on Rome’s Piazza Venezia underground metro station uncovered the remains of ordinary workers’ homes, temples, the remains of Emperor Hadrian’s auditorium, and the largest Roman military barracks ever unearthed, dating back to the days of ancient Rome. This documentary follows not just the archaeologists at work on the discovery, but the metro project engineers as they work to preserve the site while building a railway that has been 25 years in the making.

Stream Rome Underground on Wednesday, 24 December at 8:30PM on National Geographic Channel 181. Available on DStv Stream.

Home for the holidays

Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking

Still fantasising about visiting Honeydukes? Prepare for confectionery conjuring and curious creations as twins James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films) host this magical baking series, which was shot on the original Harry Potter sets. The season kicks off as James and Oliver sort the bakers into their four Hogwarts houses, and there are loads more familiar faces, as guest stars including Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick) drop in for a bite.

Stream Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking Season 2 from Saturday, 6 December at 2PM on Food Network Channel 175. All the original Harry Potter films are available to stream on Showmax.

Sin City Rehab

Windy City Rehab star Alison Victoria turns her attention to breathing new life into Las Vegas – the anything-goes place where she launched her career and even designed a casino! This is also her first series as the producer of her own show. While she helps her clients, she’ll also be overseeing the renovation of her Vegas house. Look out for her treehouse-themed project, chef Antonia Lofaso’s new kitchen, and Alison’s fight with an unflattering magazine article.

Stream Sin City Rehab Season 1 from Wednesday, 17 December at 9PM on HGTV Channel 177.

The Great Pottery Throw Down Christmas Special

Celebrities Babátúndé Aléshé, Martin Kemp, Rachel Riley and Tom Rosenthal give the potter’s wheel a spin, as they’re asked to build a winter wonderland out of clay and make identical wine coolers, before they face a festive firing from judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller, and host Siobhán McSweeney. Watch and enjoy a precious moment of calm (and a little giggle at some especially wonky results) during your festive family fiasco.

Stream The Great Pottery Throw Down Christmas Special on Monday, 22 December at 8PM on BBC Lifestyle Channel 174. Available on DStv Stream.

Jingle balls

Greens & Gold

T+W, the makers of rugby documentary Chasing the Sun, follow Stinger GC golfers Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Dean Burmester through the 2025 LIV season, from the driving range to the locker room, from team chats to biltong runs in Adelaide. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and all of that has an impact on how you play. I think fans will enjoy seeing that side of it,” hints team captain Louis Oosthuizen.

Stream Greens & Gold from Sunday, 14 December at 5PM on SuperSport Golf Channel 213. Available on DStv Stream.

United Rugby Championship

Catch the DHL Stormers (who were at the top of the standings at the end of November) taking on the Lions at Cape Town Stadium at 3:30PM, followed by the Sharks vs Bulls game at Kings Park Stadium at 5:55PM. With a lot of ground still to cover, and a home-ground swap and rematch coming for all four teams in late December, it’s time to work out the kinks before our teams face the international sides in January.

Stream the United Rugby Championship on Saturday, 20 December at 3:30PM and 5:55PM on SuperSport Rugby Channel 211.

UEFA Champions League Cup 2025/2026

Whether you strike the colours for a UK team, or you live for the glamour of Italy and Spain’s fiercest players like Lautaro Martínez and Kylian Mbappé, these midweek games are worth staying up late for! Tuesday sees a dynamite Inter Milan team take on Liverpool (who’re having a disastrous Premier League season lately) at San Siro in Milan, while just one Champions League point lies between Manchester City and Real Madrid as they meet at Santiago Bernabéu on Wednesday.

Stream the UEFA Champions League Cup 2025/2026 on Tuesday, 9 December and Wednesday, 10 December at 9:55PM on SuperSport Premier League Channel 203.

IND Cricket: T20 International

Local cricket fans are hoping for an action replay of November’s incredible 2-0 test win against India under captain Temba Bavuma. The Proteas served their hosts their worst-ever defeat on home ground, eclipsing them by 408 runs to win their first series in India in 25 years, with Simon Harmer winning player of the series after claiming 17 wickets, and Aiden Markram setting a record for most catches by an outfielder in a single Test match.

Stream the IND Cricket: T20 International, Proteas vs India, on Tuesday, 9 December, Thursday, 11 December, Sunday, 14 December, Wednesday, 17 December, and Friday, 19 December, all starting at 3:20PM on SuperSport Cricket Channel 212.

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