eMedia Holdings, the controlling shareholder of eMedia Investments – the owner of brands such as e.tv, eNCA and Openview – has reported a sharp increase in revenue and profits for the six months to 30 September 2021.

The listed company, whose only asset is a 67.7% stake in eMedia Investments, described the first half of its 2022 financial year as an “incredible” performance, driven by a sharp uptick in advertising sales.

It said the strong performance, which saw revenue jump by 44.1% to more than R1.5-billion, was due to a resurgence in television and radio advertising spend in South Africa and a “concerted effort” by the group to improve its market share and audience numbers.

“The year-on-year television advertising cake has shown an increase in excess of 40% and the radio advertising cake increased in excess of 10%,” eMedia Holdings said in a statement to shareholders.

“Advertising, being the major source of revenue for the group, has had the biggest impact on the results, with revenue ending the period on R1.06-billion compared to the prior period of R687.2-million, a difference of R370.7-million,” it said.

E.tv’s market share improved from 18% to 21.8%, and this was an “important driver for the success of the group”.

The multi-channel business, including free-to-air satellite platform Openview, also did well, eMedia said, with its market share increasing by 26% to 9.6%.

Top 10

“The outstanding performance in the multi-channel business has come from eExtra, the two movie channels as well as eReality,” it said. “These channels are continually in the top 10 channels in the country of all DTH (satellite) channels and display the strength of content curation in the group.”

eMedia said Openview will launch three new channels in the next six months. Openview recorded R88.4-million revenue from set-top box sales compared to R70.7-million a year ago.

eMedia Holdings’ operating profit from continuing operations was R184.4-million, up from R103.6-million in the same period a year ago. Ebitda – a measure of operating profit – was R313-million, up from R214.9-million.