by Thinus Ferreira
Africa's MultiChoice pay-TV business saw ongoing cord-cutting take a massive bite out of its subscriber base as it lost 9% of its active subscribers - 5% in South Africa and 13% in the Rest of Africa (RoA) - over the past year with its premium subscriber segment plummeting further.
MultiChoice, currently part of a corporate take-over and buyout process by Vivendi's Canal+, continues to blame Eskom's loadshedding and a "challenging consumer environment" for its shocking DStv subscriber losses it revealed in its financial results for the year until 31 March 2024.
In its RoA business, MultiChoice Africa blamed its operations in Nigeria, Angola and Zambia for "worst performance", citing rampant inflation and volatile currencies.
After the latest customer cord-cutting, MultiChoice has 7.6 million South African DStv subscribers left.
In its so-called "premium tier" of DStv Premium and DStv Compact Plus subscribers - MultiChoice's most-valuable consumers who contribute most to Average Revenue per User (ARPU) - MultiChoice saw subscriber numbers plummet another 8%.
By the end of March 2024, MultiChoice now has only 1.8 million 90-day active DStv premium segment subscribers left - a loss of another 200 000 top-end DStv subscribers in South Africa in the past year.
In its "midmarket" tier - DStv Compact subscribers - MultiChoice saw cord-cutting of a whopping 9%, while its mass-market subscribers decreased by 2% "due to pressure in the DStv Family base, loadshedding and the reduction of DStv decoder subsidies".
In these segments, MultiChoice shed around another 200 000 DStv subscribers in South Africa, meaning that in total MultiChoice lost around 400 000 DStv subscribers over the past year.
Due to weaker local currencies and consumer pressure, MultiChoice revenue declined by 5% to R56 billion.
According to MultiChoice, its RoA business "faced the toughest macro-economic conditions in its core markets with high, double-digit inflation and extreme depreciation of local currencies - especially in Nigeria, Angola, Kenya and Zambia - which impacted USD revenues by 32%".
In RoA MultiChoice Africa's active subscriber base declined to 8.1 million subscribers.
For its video streaming service Showmax relaunched and now done in partnership with Comcast's NBCUniversal, revenues for the year grew by 22% R1 billion, although trading losses increased to R2.6 billion.
MultiChoice says "The linear video-entertainment business remains the mainstay of the group's operations and provides a valuable base from which to expand its service offerings".
"The new streaming, interactive entertainment, fintech and connectivity services are having a positive impact on the business, and more importantly, on the lives of its customers. Going forward, the group will focus its efforts on scaling Showmax, Moment, SuperSportBet, as well as on driving growth in insurance (NMSIS), DStv Internet and DStv Stream."
