MultiChoice Group made its market debut in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning as a JSE Top40 company with a market capitalisation of about R44-billion shortly after 9am.
The pay-television broadcaster, which will list on the JSE later this month, has revealed all the price adjustments to its DStv bouquets, which will take effect on 1 April 2019.
MultiChoice won’t hike the price of DStv Premium in 2019, reflecting the pressure the pay-television broadcaster is under at the top end of the market.
MultiChoice will carry losses incurred by Showmax in the “medium term”, but the goal is eventually for the streaming television service to turn a profit once broadband infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent has been built out further to support it.
MultiChoice Africa Group, which will list on the JSE next month, expects to pay executive chairman Imtiaz Patel R22.2-million for the year ended 31 March 2019, up from R19.7-million in the 2018 financial year.
Naspers has announced a management shake-up at MultiChoice, with the creation of a new MultiChoice Group business (formerly Naspers Video Entertainment), which will be headed by Calvo Mawela.
Communications regulator Icasa has announced it will conduct a regulatory impact assessment on television must-carry regulations following strenuous objections by the SABC.
MultiChoice South Africa CEO Calvo Mawela is confident the pay-television broadcaster can arrest the decline in the number of lucrative DStv Premium bouquet customers on its books.
Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk, together with Naspers video entertainment CEO Imtiaz Patel and MultiChoice South Africa CEO Calvo Mawela, held a media call on Tuesday morning to discuss the plan to unbundle MultiChoice. Listen to it here.
Newzroom Afrika will replace the formerly Gupta-owned and now-defunct Afro Worldview (previously ANN7) on DStv, MultiChoice South Africa CEO Calvo Mawela said on Tuesday.