MultiChoice Group, the South African-based Pay-TV services provider has reported that its Nigerian subsidiary, MultiChoice Nigeria, recorded a drop of 243,000 subscribers on its Digital Satellite Television (DStv) and General Entertainment on Television (GOtv) services from April to September this year.
The group, which these figures on Tuesday in its Interim Financial Results for the period ending 30 September 2024, attributed the drop in Nigeria’s subscriptions to surging inflation rate in the country.
In its financial report for March 2024, MultiChoice had reported an 18% subscriber loss in Nigeria.
According to the latest interim financial results of the group, 566,000 subscribers in other countries in Africa also discontinued their subscriptions over the past six months, with Zambia and Nigeria accounting for the largest drop rate in the continent.
MultiChoice clarified: “With the Rest of Africa business having seen a decline of 803k subscribers in 2H FY24, this rate of decline slowed to 566k in 1H FY25.”
It listed the loss in subscriptions as including 298,000 in Zambia and 243,000 in Nigeria, while other markets experienced slight drops in subscriptions,
Identifying the surging inflation rates and currency instability as the major causes of loss in the group’s profits, MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela, maintained that despite the loss, the group’s management is “making good progress in addressing the technical insolvency that resulted from non-cash accounting entries at the end of the last financial year.”
However, Mawela projected that the group’s net equity position was expected to recover by November.
Specifically on Zambia’s losses, the company attributed them to extensive power outages caused by drought, leaving some regions with up to 23 hours of daily outages even as it cited competition from streaming services and changes in viewer preferences as pressures on its traditional pay-TV model.
To tackle the challenges, MultiChoice invested an additional ZAR1.6 billion in its streaming service Showmax, which reported 50% year-over-year growth by September this year.
The Group CEO noted that Showmax strategically positioned the “business to actively participate in the streaming revolution as it gains momentum across Africa.”
