Netflix adds a whopping 7.41 million new subscribers during the first quarter of 2018, fueled by its ongoing international expansion.

The clearly unstoppable global subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service Netflix has added a whopping 7.41 million new subscribers during the first quarter of this year, largely fueled by its ongoing international expansion in countries like South Africa, beating its own forecasts for the quarter.

Netflix has released its financial results for the first quarter until 31 March 2018 with Netflix that raked in another $3.6 billion in revenue from its 125 million subscribers globally. Netflix added another 5.46 million global subscribers and 1.96 million subscribers in the United States.

This is more new subscriber growth for both the US and internationally, than what Netflix and Wall Street investors projected.

For the 2nd quarter of this year Netflix said it expects 6.2 million global new subscribers.

Big satellite pay-TV operators like Sky in the United Kingdom and Comcast in America, as well as Proximus in Belgium and SFR Altice in France have now started to bundle Netflix as an additional offering.

Sky and Comcast now offer Netflix as a new service folded inside their traditional pay-TV offering, similar to what MultiChoice has done with Naspers' SVOD service, Showmax, that has been bolted on to its DStv service for subscribers in South Africa and the rest of the sub-Saharan African continent.

At its last MultiChoice Content Showcase for media, MultiChoice told the press that it doesn't have any plans to add Netflix for DStv subscribers in the way Showmax is currently made available, although Graeme Cumming, the head of digital media at MultiChoice, in response to a Netflix question, said that the pay-TV operator is always open to exploring new content partnerships.

Netflix in its Q1 results report said that its bundling with existing pay-TV services in international markets makes the sign-up and payment process easier for people who want to use Netflix.

Netflix says where it's bundled with an existing pay-TV service there are less subscribers who leave (lower churn) making these partnerships worthwhile, despite the lower per-subscriber fees it gets through partnership deals.

"We remain primarily a direct-to-consumer business, but we see our bundling initiative as an attractive supplemental channel," Netflix said.

Disney expands its DStv footprint as Disney Channel is tiered down; 3 Disney channels are added to DStv Now streaming service.

Disney is expanding its DStv footprint as the Disney Channel has been tiered down to be made available to two more cheaper DStv subscription offerings and with the three Disney channels on DStv now being made available MultiChoice's DStv Now streaming service as well.

MultiChoice and The Walt Disney Company Africa have decided to reduce the exclusivity of The Disney Channel (DStv 303) and has made the premium kids entertainment channel available to more than just top-tier DStv subscribers from 1 December.

With the streaming rights secured, MultiChoice also added all three of the current Disney channels - Disney Channel (DStv 303), Disney XD (DStv 304) and Disney Junior (DStv 309) to its DStv Now streaming service from 1 December.

Whereas The Disney Channel was previously only available to DStv Premium subscribers, the channel's exclusivity to top-tier pay-TV viewers has now been dropped and made available to DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact subscribers as well - similar to brother channel Disney XD that has been available to all three subscription tiers already.

"We're delighted to offer our DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact customers more entertainment for the kids, especially in the form of the ever-popular Disney Channel," said Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice general manager for content in a statement.

"Now families have got so much more to look forward to these December holidays - and the entertainment won't stop as Disney Channel is now part of our Compact Plus and Compact packages."

With the Disney channels being added to its DStv Now streaming facility, MultiChoice continues to build out and get closer to creating a parallel streaming service through the internet mirroring its existing satellite direct-to-home (DTH) service.

"We've been focusing in expanding our DStv Now service to mirror the service our customers get when they are at home - adding the Disney family of channels to DStv Now brings us closer to that goal," says Graeme Cumming, DStv Digital Media general manager.

"We're delighted to offer this to our customers over the holiday period,so they can keep the kids entertained on long road trips, and when they visit family and friends."

Naspers' SVOD Showmax folded into MultiChoice's DStv Digital Media; not a cost-cutting exercise says Showmax.

Naspers' 2-year old subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Showmax is folding its South African and African operations into the DStv Digital Media unit of Naspers' MultiChoice pay-TV satellite service, with Showmax saying it's not a cost-cutting exercise.

The merged Showmax and DStv Digital Media will be renamed as a new digital division reporting directly to Imtiaz Patel, CEO of Naspers' video entertainment unit.

Showmax's operations outside of South Africa will be headed up by John Kotsaftis, while Graeme Cummings, DStv Digital Media general manager and Chris Savides, Showmax Africa boss, will continue in their roles for now.

So far there's been no announcement from Naspers, MultiChoice or Showmax, while Imtiaz Patel told staffers that Showmax Africa will be folded into DStv Digital Media, reporting to MultiChoice South Africa CEO Mark Rayner while Naspers looks for someone to head up the newly combined digital unit.

"The time has come for us to align these two services more closely to create an even better entertainment experience for our customers and to truly innovate in this space," said Imtiaz Patel to staffers.

"This is an opportunity for us to truly leverage the skills and capabilities we have built in these two teams, and create greater synergy. For this reason, we will be bringing Showmax Africa and DStv Digital Media together in Africa to create a new digital division (final name to be decided) reporting directly into me."

"Graeme Cumming, GM for DStv Digital Media and Chris Savides, Showmax head of Africa, will continue to provide leadership," said Imtiaz Patel.

Over the past year Showmax, launched by Naspers as its own service and directly competing with MultiChoice's DStv and other SVOD services, has become so integrated with MultiChoice's offering that it's become virtually indistinguisable as a separate service.

Bloomberg first reported that Naspers is merging Showmax and MultiChoice's DStv Digital Media division to cut costs and to share exclusive content - something that ShowMax and MultiChoice have already been doing in terms of TV production costs and broadcasting licensing rights.

In response to a media enquiry in the week asking about it, Showmax spokesperson Richard Boorman told TVwithThinus that "we're looking at opportunities for DStv and Showmax to work more closely on digital entertainment products to the benefit of both sets of customers."

'There's no specific details to share at this point, but I can say it's not a cost-cutting exercise."

MultiChoice in response to a similar media enquiry said "we're looking at opportunities for DStv and Showmax to work more closely on digital entertainment products to the benefit of both sets of customers. There are no specific details to share at this point."

MultiChoice adds another 17 of its existing TV channels on DStv to its DStv Now streaming service for DStv Premium subscribers with a PVR.

MultiChoice is adding another 17 of its existing TV channels available on its DStv satellite pay-TV platform to its DStv Now live streaming app and DStv online site.

DStv Now's functionality of live streaming TV channels is only available to DStv Premium subscribers with a PVR.

The 17 additional TV channels follow the 21 TV channels MultiChoice added in April this year, and brings the total to 60.

The 17 further channels on DStv Now are E! Entertainment, VUZU AMP, VUZU, FOX Entertainment, BET, M-Net City, National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, Mzansi Wethu, Mzansi Bioscope, kykNET Nou!, SuperSport 7, SuperSport 8, SuperSPort 9, M-Net Movies Zone, MTV Base and M-Net Family.

"We're excited that we're able to add more channels to DStv Now in such a short period of time - we added 21 channels earlier this year," says Graeme Cumming, the general manager of DStv digital media in a statement.