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South Africa-based pay TV operator MultiChoice surpassed the 20 million subscriber milestone at the end of the third quarter after adding 1.2 million active 90-day subscribers in the year through September.
The pay TV group also announced the launch today of its next-generation set-top box, Explora Ultra, which among other things provides access to Netflix for the first time.
MultiChoice now has 20.1 million paying customers, divided by 8.7 million or 43% in its local South African market and 11.4 million or 57% in the rest of the continent.
The number of South African subscribers increased 7% or 500,000, while the rest of Africa increased 6% or 600,000.
Revenues for the six months through September, the group’s first fiscal semester, were up 2%, but down 1% in organic terms, to ZAR26.1 billion (€ 330 million), with subscription revenue of ZAR22.2 billion increasing by 5%, including organic growth of 3% year-on-year. South African income fell 3%, while the rest of Africa income increased 11%, or 6% organically, due to strong undergrowth and the impact of the weak South African rand.
The group said its top line was negatively affected by COVID-19. Advertising revenue decreased by ZAR 0.6 billion, mainly due to a lack of sports advertising and a generally weaker advertising market as a result of lower economic activity.
B2B subscription revenue was ZAR0.3 billion lower as a result of hotel, restaurant and other business customers closing during closures. The operator estimated that without the impact of COVID-19, revenues would have grown 6% or 4% organically.
Business profits grew 19% to ZAR 5.7 billion.
MultiChoice’s new Explora Ultra box will go on sale next week. The device offers Netflix for the first time, along with content from DStv, Showmax, BoxOffice and select partners.
“Despite operating in a challenging environment and being affected by blackouts, production shutdowns and outages in live sport, we are meeting all key metrics,” says Calvo Mawela, CEO of MCG.
“A strong focus on cost reduction saved more ZAR1bn in costs during the period. We also cut losses in the rest of Africa by 59% year-on-year or ZAR 500 million to ZAR 338 million. “
On launching the box, Mawela said: “Backed by our world-class technology, our emphasis is on delivering great content across different platforms and building an ecosystem that keeps customers engaged. Our subscriber base of more than 20 million customers provides considerable scale and a platform to continually add more products and services. We believe that, whether organically or through third parties, offering our customers an ecosystem of video entertainment options will be critical to our long-term success and making our customers’ lives more convenient and satisfying.
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