by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice further grew its DStv and GOtv pay-TV subscribers for its financial year that ended 31 March 2022 by just over 900 000 subscribers, although it keeps shedding its most valuable top-end DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers.
In its latest financial results, MultiChoice announced that it managed to add roughly 900 000 subscribers, bringing it to 9 011 000 DStv subscribers in South Africa (41% of the total) and 12 793 000 in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa (59% of the total).
MultiChoice's 90-day blended average revenue per user (ARPU) once again dropped further from R277 to R269.
While MultiChoice grew its overall subscriber base, its group of DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers in South Africa - the operator's most valuable clients - as part of its overall subscriber mix declined by another 4% over the financial year.
This 4%-decline with 1.4 million subscribers in this group by the end of the financial year, is however half of the 8%-decline that happened between the 2020 to 2021 financial year. MultiChoice's share of mid-market subscribers in South Africa also declined by 6% with the company that now has 2.8 million DStv Compact and DStv Commercial subscribers.
MultiChoice's growth came from lower DStv packages for the mass market, with DStv Access and DStv EasyView subscribers which showed growth of 7% from 4.6 million to 4.9 million subscribers in South Africa during the financial year.
As MultiChoice gets locked out of more and more Hollywood studios funnelling their best content to their own video streaming service to grow scale, MultiChoice says it's continuing to increasingly focus on producing its own local content and had managed to increased its local content production by 32% year-on-year to 6 028 hours over the reported financial year. MultiChoice now has a local content library of close to 70 000 hours.
Local content accounted for 47% of total general entertainment content spend and MultiChoice says the Randburg-based pay-TV operator remains on track to achieve a target of 50% by 2024.
Paying subscribers for Showmax, MultiChoice's video-on-demand streaming service, were up 68% year-on-year, whilst overall monthly online users of MultiChoice's connected video services increased 28% year-on-year.
In South Africa, MultiChoice says it faced an increasingly difficult consumer climate with DStv growth rates impacted by rising unemployment levels, Eskom's electricity blackouts and the social unrest in July 2021 in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg.
MultiChoice says that in the year ahead it will continue to drive penetration of its video entertainment services across the African continent by offering subscribers "an array of unique and rich media content delivered in a convenient and cost-effective way".
"Local content and select sporting events such as the English Premier league, UEFA Champions League and the 2022 FIFA World Cup will contribute to the growth in linear and streaming services."
Over the financial year MultiChoice says it managed to sell over 100 000 DStv Explora Ultra decoders and that its DStv Rewards loyalty programme is approaching 1 million users after 18 months.
Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, in a statement says the pay-TV operator "will look to further expand our entertainment ecosystem by identifying growth opportunities that leverage our scale and local capabilities".
