Multichoice Africa Rakes In $3.7 Billion In Revenues

The company which own’s Multichoice –Nasper’s- managed to grow their video entertainment segment’s revenue to $3.7-billion. This video segment is getting the bulk of it’s revenue from DStv, GOtv and Showmax (Multichoice’s Netflix competitor) which are all Multichoice services.

Whilst a stronger rand had positive impact, the revenues and overall results are being said to have been affected by the devaluation of the Naira (Nigeria) and Kwanza (Angola).

Multichoice installed more than 1 million direct-to-home satellite subscribers whilst adding 520 000 digital terrestrial television (DTT) subscribers. Oh and you’re wondering what DTT is right? It allows signals to be sent without use of satellites and is used for the GOtv service. Multichoice’s subscriber base reportedly stands at 13.5million households.

more stats…

Other interesting stats include:

• The videeo-segment grew earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) from $520 million to $627 million – a 21% increase
• Trading profit of the video-segment rose from $287 million to $369 million – a 29%
• (In South Africa) Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) declined from R354/month to R344/month
• (In South Africa) The number of personal video recorder decoders grew by 9% to 1.4 million, representing an 81% penetration on Premium and 12% on Compact

DStv subscriber shifts

DStv Premium Subscribers fell from 1.96 million to 1.92 million, whilst those on Compact rose from 3.18 million to 3.52 million. Subscribers on the lower ends rose from 6.8 million to 8.04 million. Overall the subscriber base has grown so in the short term Multichoice won’t be too stressed by the drop in premium subcribers.

Outlook

In a statement released by Naspers it’s clear they will continue focusing on offering the best sports packages, while keeping developing their VoD service Showmax:

Through continued efforts to save on content costs and overheads, it reduced operating costs by over $70-million. Sports rights investments included renewing the English Premier League, South Africa’s Premier Soccer League and the UEFA Champions League. Cost savings were partially reinvested in subscriber acquisition, production of local content and scaling Showmax.

It only makes sense that going forward Multichoice would want to put a lot of resources into Showmax as it is becoming clearer and clearer that the days of the satellite TV are numbered.