eMedia Holdings said on Thursday that its legal fees rose sharply in the year ended 31 March 2024 as it battled rival, DStv parent MultiChoice Group, on multiple fronts.

Legal costs rose by R8.8-million in 2024 compared to the previous financial year, in large part due to a fight with MultiChoice over the continued carriage of four of eMedia’s channels on the DStv platform.

The broadcaster, which owns satellite platform Openview, free-to-air broadcaster e.tv and 24-hour news channel eNCA, did not disclose how much it spent in legal fees in total, and the figure for 2023 also could not be gleaned from its annual report.

eMedia is engaged in a battle with MultiChoice over alleged anti-competitive practices.

It accused its rival of abuse of dominance, in violation of the Competition Act, for removing four of its channels from DStv. MultiChoice said it removed them for commercial reasons.

The Competition Commission is still conducting its investigation into MultiChoice’s decision to terminate the four channels.

In a separate case, eMedia is challenging MultiChoice’s decision not to allow the SABC to carry sublicensed sports content on Openview. The SABC’s public service channels are carried on Openview, but recent sublicensing deals precluded the SABC from carrying those games on the eMedia-owned platform.

Interim relief

Last month, the Competition Tribunal granted interim relief of up to six months to eMedia in this matter. This is after the broadcaster took MultiChoice, which also owns SuperSport, to the Competition Commission last year after the pay-TV operator refused to allow the SABC to broadcast rugby and cricket matches on its channels on Openview. eMedia subsequently sought interim relief from the tribunal to “stop MultiChoice from enforcing the restriction in existing sublicensing agreements or including such restrictions in any new sublicensing agreements until the merits of the case are decided”.

MultiChoice opposed eMedia’s interim relief application, arguing that “none of eMedia’s complaints had any basis in competition law or fact”. It had said previously that eMedia’s “true grievance is simply a commercial one, namely that the impugned restriction is preventing it from being able to free-ride on SuperSport’s investment in sports rights, and from thereby being able to negate the competitive advantage that MultiChoice Group is entitled to derive from the investments that it has been willing to make in such rights”.

eMedia on Thursday described its annual results as “satisfactory”, despite some pressure on its top line as a result of load shedding, which contributed to a 1% decline in television advertising spend in the year.

The actors’ and writers’ strike in Hollywood at the beginning of the 2024 financial year also had a “severe negative impact” on eMedia subsidiary Media Film Service, which made R31.5-million less in profit after tax when compared to the prior year.

“Notwithstanding all the negative impacts to business operations in the macroeconomic environment in South Africa, the group was able to return favourable results and further continues with the declaration of dividends to its shareholders with a dividend of 16c/share at the close of the financial year,” it said.

Group revenue fell by 2.1% to R3.1-billion, mainly due to decreased sales at Media Film Service. Television ad revenue rose by 3% to R2.17-billion (against the market contraction of 1%).

Set-top box activations for Openview for the year amounted to 377 916, taking the number of activated boxes to 3.43 million. It did not disclose how many of those remain active. It reiterated, too, that a new Openview box is in development that will offer more memory along with Wi-Fi connectivity. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media