MultiChoice is aggressively expanding its digital terrestrial television (DTT) footprint across sub-Saharan Africa. This is contributing to rapid growth in the number of pay-TV subscribers on its books outside its home market of South Africa.
For the year ended 31 March 2014, the Naspers-owned company added 1,3m net new subscribers, driven by growth from the rest of the continent. Naspers said on Monday that it hopes to “capture the growth opportunity in DTT across Africa”.
The number of subscribers outside South Africa climbed by a third to almost 3,1m, while at home growth was a more pedestrian 12,5%.
Subscriber numbers for GOtv, MultiChoice’s DTT offering, have leapt by almost 50% in the past 12 months, to reach 817 000.
GOtv is now available in 92 cities in eight countries, including key markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda and Ghana.
Governments and regulators across the region are busy with projects to migrate their terrestrial broadcast networks from analogue to digital. This is opening up opportunities for new players to enter these markets with content offerings.
MultiChoice is investing heavily in building DTT infrastructure in these countries. Capital expenditure rose by 83% in the 2014 financial year to reach R3,7bn, of which more than R1,3bn went into DTT roll-out programmes.
Meanwhile, Naspers has revealed that programming costs have also jumped in the past year, climbing by 18% to R8,2bn. Over the past five years, these costs have risen by a compound annual 18%.
According to Naspers, MultiChoice has increased the number of personal video recorder (PVR) users to 1,1m, up by 15% on a year ago. Among other things, PVRs allow subscribers to record and pause live television. The company’s satellite-based movie rental service, BoxOffice, is now leasing an average of 529 000 movies per month.
Lower-cost programming bouquets are driving demand from customers, with DStv Premium subscribers making up 28% of the total, down from 34% in 2013. Compact has remained stable at 37% of the mix, while lower-end bouquets now make up 35% of the total, from 29% previously.
Fully 80% of MultiChoice’s revenues now come from subscription fees, with just 7% coming from advertising. Hardware sales (6%), online/broadband (4%) and other revenue sources (3%) make up the rest. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
