by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice says it isn't nervous about Netflix and will compete against the giant global video streaming service in Africa by offering exclusive sports content and regionalised local content to DStv and Showmax subscribers who no longer want to watch everything from Hollywood.
MultiChoice, like all traditional pay-TV operators worldwide, is under extreme pressure to rapidly evolve and innovate in the lucrative yet highly contested space of subscription video content as digital streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video are gobbling up global users.
Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, says MultiChoice isn't nervous about Netflix that is projected to reach 5.84 million subscirbers in Africa by 2026, followed by Disney+ launching around June 2022, that is estimated to quicklyreach 2.17 million subscribers in Africa by 2026.
"I will not use the word nervous. We recognise it and we know there are competitors in the market and we need to take note of their activities in the market like all other competitors we have been competing with across the African continent," Calvo Mawela said in a TV interview broadcast Saturday on CNN International.
He said MultiChoice will keep a competitive edge against Netflix and other streamers through SuperSport's exclusive sports rights agreements with local and international sporting leagues and being able to broadcast sporting events live, as well as making local content, localised for specific African countries.
"So the competition will happen, but we will see some overlap between the two services as things evolve because of the content that we have positioned ourselves with: Best in sport and the home of local content in local languages," Calvo Mawela said.
"People still want to hear the languages that they speak on a day-to-day basis and that is where we are able to position ourselves."
He says that MultiChoice's "local content production is sitting at a library of 46 000 hours of local content. Through this investment that we have made in local content we have seen the response in terms of subscriber growth."
"In Kenya, we try to produce in the local languages, in the street lingo that they use on a day-to-day basis, and use Kenyans to be able to attract Kenyans. We do the same when we go to Nigeria; we do the same when we go to South Africa."
"The good thing about local content is that we are spending in local currencies in the markets that we are operating in."
"Gone are the days that Africans wanted to watch everything from Hollywood," said Calvo Mawela.
"They are more invested in their stories and their own people telling their own stories. That's why we have seen this growth where we are sitting with just over 20 million subscribers at the moment."
Calvo Mawela said that MultiChoice will continue to grow its linear pay-TV subscriber base over the next 5 years "and we will grow the online platform and will have more subscribers on the online side".
"What is exciting is the ecosystem that we are building. We are very deliberate by focusing on technology-driven businesses that are going to address the everyday needs of Africans on the continent and we think with that strategy we will be able to see great returns for the business going into the future."
Last month Sky in the United Kingdom launched its new Sky Glass smart TV set with a built-in decoder that now seamlessly bundles Sky's traditional pay-TV offering with almost all available video streaming services into one viewing portal.
This was followed two weeks later by America's Comcast that launched its XClass TV set in the United States, doing the same thing in offering a seamless combined linear pay-TV and streaming experience as traditional pay-TV operators now directly take on smart TV set manufacturers like Samsung and LG to keep their subscribers locked in.
MultiChoice hasn't announced any such bespoke smart TV play for DStv yet. In August last year MultiChoice announced a new DStv Streama decoder but never brought the "vapourware" to market.
The MultiChoice Group will report its interim financial results for the period ending 30 September 2021 on 11 November.
