by Thinus Ferreira
eMedia's Openview which now brings in a quarter of its total ad revenue is on the cusp of being in 3.2 million TV households with TV ratings up for its various e-packaged channels, while it will continue to invest in eOriginals and Afrikaans-dubbed Turkish telenovelas which are the main subscriber drivers of its eVOD video streamer.
eMedia Holdings published its annual financial results for the year ending 31 March 2023 on Thursday, noting that there's been an improvement in the TV ratings of the other six e-packaged linear TV channels produced by the group.
According to eMedia, the eExtra, eMovies Extra
and eReality channels rank in the top 15 of all satellite channels available in South Africa, with eMedia planning to launch a few more new TV channels on Openview in the next financial year.
Openview
According to eMedia, Openview now accounts for almost a quarter of eMedia's entire advertising revenue.
"This direct-to-home (DTH) unit of the business accounted for 23.8% of the advertising revenue amounting to R501.3 million which is up
from R468.7 million in the previous year," eMedia says.
The company notes that "Despite difficult trading conditions in the form of 282 days of load shedding, which have had a direct impact on TV viewing, the group is satisfied with the financial performance."
"The available revenue for TV was impacted so much so that it has resulted in a reduction of almost R500 million in advertising revenue to the industry."
eMedia says Openview set-top box activations for the year amounted to 513 840, taking the number of activated set-top boxes to 3 166 461. eMedia doesn't specify how many of the almost 3.2 activated Openview boxes remain active and in use.
As it did during its previous financial report, eMedia once again said that it plans to bring a next upgraded phase of Openview STBs to the market, which will be "a smarter set-top box which will have memory facilities and Wi-Fi capability".
MultiChoice carriage fight
eMedia says its squabble with MultiChoice over four e-packaged TV channels it provides to the Randburg-based pay-TV operator is ongoing, noting that the case "is still under investigation by the Competition Commission after non-renewal of the channel carriage
agreement".
eMedia says that these TV channels remain on MultiChoice's DStv for the time being, since a ruling is still pending from the Competition Commission.
eVOD driven by eOriginals and Afrikaans-Turkish novelas
eMedia's video streaming service eVOD is now a year old and the company says it has been "well-accepted in its target market".
eVOD battles the flurry of video streamers available in South Africa, ranging from MultiChoice's Showmax and Netflix, to Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, SABC+ and VIU.
eMedia doesn't want to reveal subscriber numbers but says "The number
of registered viewers to date has been very encouraging with the average daily minutes viewed in excess of
1.5 million."
"The eOriginals offering, together with the Afrikaans Turkish telenovellas on eVOD is the leading
audience generator on eVOD making the group bullish about investing a further R100 million per annum in
local original content which will be amortised across the group's platforms and channels. To date the group
has added 73 hours of original content to its slate."
Openview Ultra
While eMedia launched Openview Ultra with a gay bouquet and a Bollywood bouquet of pay-TV channels, it happened less than a month before the end of eMedia's financial year this year, with eMedia not yet saying anything regarding its uptake and performance.
e.tv
Regarding its commercial free-to-air TV channel, e.tv, eMedia says that the "prime-time market share for e.tv has shown a slight decrease to 21.4% audience share". eMedia blames Eskom's ongoing electricity blackouts known as "load-shedding".
"The continued load-shedding
has seen a change in viewer patterns and this has seen an impact on some of the shows."
eMedia says that Scandal! and
House of Zwide continue to have a demanding market share in their respective timeslots.
"e.tv continues to face the impact of the uncertainty of the imminent analogue switch-off facing the country but the group
is confident that the audience share will be carefully managed. At present the group is once again engaging with the department of communication in relation to the switch-off date with e.tv stating that too many ordinary South Africans
will remain without TV with a hard switch-off."
