WHO KNEW? Brand de Villiers in as new MultiChoice Africa CEO and Tim Jacobs out as yet another 'pale male' heads up Naspers' Africa pay-TV division.

It wasn't publicly announced when it happened from January 2017, nor was there any stepping down, goodbye statement, but Brand de Villiers has taken over as new MultiChoice Africa CEO following the quiet exit of Tim Jacobs at the end of 2016 at Naspers' pay-TV division for Africa.

The replacement raises questions about MultiChoice Africa's top management transformation - or perceived lack of it - as yet another white male executive in a succession of "pale males" has taken over the number one executive position to look after MultiChoice's sprawling Africa pay-TV business division.

Eben Greyling was MultiChoice Africa CEO, followed by Collins Khumalo for a little bit who decided to "take a break". 

Nico Meyer who then started as MultiChoice Africa CEO in February 2012, left in April 2015 "for personal reasons". He was replaced in turn by Tim Jacobs who left just over a year and a half later in December 2016 "for family reasons".

In all that time - spanning almost a decade - MultiChoice Africa doesn't seem to have adequately nurtured, prepared and corporately laddered up internally, new executive management talent in whom it has enough confidence to fill the MultiChoice Africa CEO role within a black economic empowerment (BEE) perspective.

Now Brand de Villiers is the new boss of MultiChoice Africa since January 2017.

Brand de Villiers of course defected from the Premier League Soccer where he was PSL CEO in late 2015 to become MultiChoice's new general manager for strategy and special projects.

MultiChoice Africa says Tim Jacobs stepped down from the position as MultiChoice Africa CEO in January for family reasons as he decided to re-locate back to South Africa from Dubai.

Brand de Villiers has been running the operations of MultiChoice Africa for just over a year.

MultiChoice Africa in a statement says "MultiChoice Africa is delighted to announce the appointment of Brand de Villiers as CEO based in Dubai."

"He joined the business in November 2015 as strategy and special projects director and has been a driving force in enabling the business to respond to dynamic and complex environment in 49 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa."

"Brand de Villiers is a chartered accountant having held positions as CEO of the PSL and the Marc Group who own Sail, EXP as well as shareholdings in rugby teams such as the Blue Bulls and Western Province."

BREAKING. Naspers pay-TV CEO Eben Greyling leaving with immediate effect; replaced by Jim Volkwyn.

Naspers' pay-TV CEO Eben Greyling (left) has left and is being replaced with immediate effect by Jim Volkwyn.

No reasons for Eben Greyling's departure has been announced, other than Naspers saying he's leaving to "pursue new interests".

Eben Greyling was appointed to head op Naspers' pay-TV operations in 2009 as has been with Naspers for 18 years in various roles. He became group financial manager of MultiChoice Africa in 1996.

Jim Volkwyn, the previous head of the group's pay-TV segment before taking early retirement, is back and takes over today (1 April) with immediate effect.

In a Naspers statement, Naspers CEO Koos Bekker who is also stepping down, says Naspers wishes Eben Greyling "all the best as he takes a break to prepare for the next phase of his career".

According to the statement, under Eben Greyling's tenure at Naspers as pay-TV CEO "the last five years the subscriber base and turnover of the pay-TV businesses more than doubled".

Oprah, MultiChoice and Discovery executives, and the press, toast the start of TLC Entertainment and OWN on DStv in South Africa.

On Monday afternoon I attended the VIP reception for Oprah Winfrey at Summer Place in Hyde Park where MultiChoice, Discovery Networks International and Oprah Winfrey officially launched the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) programming block on the new TLC Entertainment (DStv 172) channel on DStv.

In attendance were Oprah Winfrey, as well as the top-tier executives from both MultiChoice and Discovery Network International for the region, a small group of selected journalists and editors from across South Africa, as well as a few selected ad sales clients, all buzzing about meeting the media mogul.

Eben Greyling, CEO of pay-TV platforms at Naspers; Imtiaz Patel, group CEO of MultiChoice South Africa; Collins Khumalo, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa; Aletta Alberts, general manager of content at MultiChoice South Africa, and several other content and marketing executives from MultiChoice were on hand to personally meet and listen to Oprah Winfrey.

From Discovery Networks International (DNI) in Europe jetted in a phalanx of executives to the exclusive TLC and OWN launch event such as Kasia Kieli, the president and managing director for Discovery Networks International's Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (CEEMEA) region.

I also spoke to Lee Hobbs, the channel director for emerging business for Discovery Networks CEEMEA and James Gibbons, the senior vice president and country manager for emerging business for Discovery Networks CEEMEA, who stayed until late with MultiChoice executives and clearly had a great time at the event.

I also had some time to catch up with the doyenne of South African women's magazines, Jane Raphaely, the editor-in-chief of O The Oprah Magazine SA and the chairperson of Associated Media Publishing; and I chatted to the always awesome Samantha Page, the editor of O The Oprah Magazine SA.

Discovery asked journalists not to take any photos during the event. The food and drink throughout was top class and guests were welcomed with champagne.

Oprah Winfrey made the rounds after the official speeches when everyone went outside during the wonderful Johannesburg sunny afternoon and she talked with Discovery and MultiChoice executives.

Last year in June I bought the large and beautiful $50 high gloss coffee table book, The Oprah Winfrey Show - Reflections on an American Legacy, since books about television and TV shows is what I absolutely love to collect.

I was there before as a journalist several years ago when Oprah Winfrey was in South Africa previously to give her first O Magazine inspirational talk in Johannesburg.

I also saw her again when she was in Somerset West, and again at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens event, but when I got the TLC Entertainment OWN DStv invitation - and since I bought the book last year - I thought I would take it with me and ask if she would please maybe sign it.

"Ooh, good one!" said Oprah Winfrey when I took it out of my bag and handed her the pen. She wrote this on one of the book's golden inside pages:

MultiChoice starts a new bouquet, DStv Extra, at R380 per month as a new mid-tiered channel package.

MultiChoice launched a new mid-tiered package for its DStv satellite pay-TV service called DStv Extra, the second new DStv bouquet launched this year following DStv Family in April which is replacing DStv Select which is getting phased out.

DStv Extra which was not announced to the press, will cost R380 per month placing it between the most expensive DStv Premium, and the DStv Compact bouquets.

DStv Extra has 86 channels as opposed to the 119 of DStv Premium and the 73 of DStv Compact. DStv Extra has less premium sports than DStv Premium but includes a lot more first-run general entertainment premium TV content that DStv Compact.

DStv Extra will also not afford viewers any high definition (HD) television watching but do offer DStv subscribers the ability to make use of the DStv BoxOffice service to rent movies through an HD PVR.

DStv Extra contains a number of channels not offered on the DStv Compact bouquet such as BBC Entertainment, Comedy Central, E! Entertainment, kykNET, AfricaMagic Movies 1, FOX in standard definition, Crime & Investigation Network, Tracel Channel, History Channel, TRACE Sports, Nickelodeon, CBeebies, VH1 Classic and Sky News.

DStv Extra includes SuperSport Blitz, SuperSport 3 and SuperSport 4 but not SuperSport which mostly carries rugby coverage.

Eben Greyling, Naspers' CEO of pay-TV business said today in the press conference discussing the media giant's financial report for the financial year ending 31 March 2013, that MultiChoice is focusing on penetrating and growing its lower subscriber base through cheaper DStv bouquets.

BREAKING. MultiChoice focusing strongly on penetrating and growing lower subscriber base with cheaper bouquets; want to expand online.

The South African pay-TV platform running the DStv direct-to-home (DTH) satellite service in South Africa and across the African continent is strongly focusing - and will continue to do so - on penetrating and growing its lower subscriber base of viewers by enticing them to sign up to cheaper DStv bouquets; MultiChoice is also strongly focused on the growing expansion and delivery of content online.

Eben Greyling, the CEO of pay-TV platforms at Naspers said in Naspers' investors' press conference during the presentation of Naspers' financial year report for the period ending 31 March 2013 which took place late this afternoon, that the average revenue per DStv subscriber is expected to decline in the future.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice grows revenue by 20% to R30,3 billion for the year ending 31 March 2013; tops 6,7 million subscribers across Africa.

Although MultiChoice's overall revenue is up, and although the average revenue per subscriber increased marginally for the year until the end of 31 March 2013, the average revenue per DStv subscriber will likely decrease in the future because the number of DStv subscribers who are part of lower-tiered DStv bouquets will grow.

What it means is that MultiChoice will  have more subscribers - and in fact wants more of these subscribers  (since it enlarges the customer base) - on cheaper bouquets below the most expensive DStv Premium bouquet.

While DStv Premium subscribers bring in the most revenue per subscriber as the most expensive bouquet, more subscribers on lower-tiered bouquets such as DStv Compact - who are more in number than DStv Premium subscribers - bring in lower average subscriber revenue but overall more money because there's much more of them.

ALSO READ: MultiChoice starts a new bouquet, DStv Extra, at R380 per month as a new mid-tiered channel package.

"Average revenue per subscriber increased marginally but we expect it to decline as we change the mix in our subscriber base because of our focus to penetrate the lower subscriber base," said Eben Greyling during Naspers' financial report press conference.

"Growth in the lower priced DStv Compact bouquet remains strong," said Eben Greyling. DStv PVR households also "recorded good growth" and this MultiChoice decoder is now in just under a million TV homes."

Naspers achieved an annual growth rate in its pay-TV business of 21% for the last five years and "the business continues to show good growth," said Eben Greyling.

He also said that Naspers' pay-TV business division is strongly focused on increasing the online delivery of content as broadband internet penetration in South Africa and across Africa grows.

"Regarding competition we continue to see an increase in competition across the continent from both traditional players as well as online players," said Eben Greyling. "Existing players in the broadcasting space are aggressively growing their business and we're also seeing new players. Regarding the online delivery of content there's also video-on-demand (VOD) services and international players such as Apple expanding their online business here."

"We're sure that this trend will definitely increase in the future and our own online developments will continue in future to help face this onslaught," he said.

Eben Greyling said the popular DStv BoxOffice service on PVR's was recently made available online. The DStv Catch-Up service was also recently expanded to more devices like the iPad and that MultiChoice will later this year expand it to Android tablets and other devices.

With strong growth, MultiChoice is heavily focused on expanding its DStv pay TV service to the mass market; wants to be anywhere, anytime.

MultiChoice wants to expand its pay TV business to the lower end of the market both in the rest of Africa as well as South Africa through utilising digital terrestrial television (DTT) (which has not commercially launched in South Africa yet).

MultiChoice is also working to provide its DStv pay TV platform's content anytime, anywhere and on any device as broadband access and speed grows inside South Africa and across the continent.

Naspers which includes MultiChoice as a pay TV business, announced its preliminary financial year results for the year ending March 2012 today with MultiChoice achieving strong growth and increasing its total subscriber base in Africa to 5,6 million households.

Pay TV subscriber growth is up 14% year-on-year (YoY) for MultiChoice which now operates in 48 countries across Africa, but competition is steadily increasing.

Regarding subscriber growth, Koos Bekker, Naspers CEO said "it was our second best year ever," in an hourlong conference call to investors this afternoon. "It didn't get to quite the World Cup heights, but it was in our view pretty good."


[Look at the blue columns above in the slide presentation Naspers made, and you'll see March 2012 has the second highest subscriber growth number of the past four years.]

In the conference call Eben Greyling, the CEO of pay TV platforms at Naspers said "we're very satisfied with the subscriber growth."


"Competitive pressures continue to increase across the continent and the impact of that can be seen in the increase in our cost and especially in content cost over the last couple of years," said Eben Greyling.


"Our strategey remain the same: we want to provide our DStv content anytime, anywhere and on any device. Globally we've seen pay TV operators being challenged by the entrance of new companies delivering content online directly to consumers. Africa unfortunately has lagged the developed markets in the online space; this will however change over the next couple of years and we have various developments in place to prepare for the shift to online distribution of content."

"The second part of our strategy is to expand our service to the mass market. The roll-out of DTT in our main markets is core to this strategy, so positioning the business is important," said Eben Greyling.

Interestingly, MultiChoice's programming costs has almost doubled over the course of the past 4 years to just over R6 billion. That is the costs associated with acquiring TV shows and movies exclusively and in a first-run window for territories; as well as the sports rights to major sporting events.

"Programming costs have increase on average 16% per annum for the last 4 years and the increase in the last year was 10% on a year-on-year (YoY) basis," said Eben Greyling. "That was due to additional sport rights coverage that MultiChoice included for the first time, and our investment in local content and new TV channels especially in the lower market segments."

"The pay TV business in South Africa performed well in the past year," said Eben Greyling. "We achieved growth of 493 000 subscribers on the back of extensive marketing campaigns and hardware specials. Growth in the DStv Compact bouquet remains strong. The popular PVR decoder recorded growth of 177 000 to end on 675 000 homes. The focus on growing the PVR base did result in an increased investment in decoder subsidies."

"For DStv BoxOffice we've now got more than 40% of our PVR homes registered for this service and average more than 300 000 movie rentals per month," Eben Greyling said.

In the rest of Africa MultiChoice is experiencing pressure on margins due to the start-up of new DTT operations and the development cost involved in the roll-out of DTT, investment in local content and new channels and sports rights.

"We're focusing in the field of pay TV much more on the bottom end of the market," said Koos Bekker [speaking specifically about the rest of sub-Saharan Africa - although its highly likely also true of South Africa.]

"You'll see a focus on driving household penetration, and digital terrestrial television is one of the ways that we want to open up that market," Koos Bekker said.

Operationally the accelerated DTT roll-out will have consequences for capital expenditure and operating cost for MultiChoice, the pay TV operator warned.

Eben Greyling was asked by an investment analyst about the impact of DTT, as well as the churn [customers who become subscribers, then cancel after a while, and have to be persuade to sign up again].

"It's too early in the roll-out of DTT to see a trend or what trend is developing on churn for DTT," Eben Greyling said. 

"The moment you go into the lower end of the market, price sensitivity becomes an issue and if you manage to bring down the barrier to entry, if you bring down the price of the equipment, then you see a much larger take-up of the product because it has a lower price. But it also impacts on the quality of the customer that you get which will likely result in an increase in churn."