Between April and September of this year, MultiChoice Nigeria, the Nigerian division of the South African pay-TV provider MultiChoice Group, lost 243,000 customers to its General Entertainment on Television (GOtv) and Digital Satellite Television (DStv) services.
These numbers were disclosed by the corporation in its Interim Financial Results available to the BrandSpur digital news platform, which was made public on Tuesday for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2024.
Nigeria’s high inflation rate—which is above 30%—caused many consumers to disconnect, according to MultiChoice, which also ascribed this reduction to rising fuel, energy, and food prices. The company had previously disclosed an 18% decline in Nigerian subscribers in its March 2024 financial report.
Multichoice also revealed that its operations in the Rest of Africa had lost 566,000 subscribers in the previous six months, with Zambia and Nigeria accounting for the majority of this drop.
According to Multichoice: “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.”
While other markets saw a little decrease, Zambia and Nigeria had losses of 298,000 and 243,000, respectively. The group’s earnings have been adversely affected by extreme inflation and currency volatility, according to MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela.
Continuing, he has this to say: “We are making good progress in addressing the technical insolvency that resulted from non-cash accounting entries at the end of the last financial year.”
By November, the group’s net equity situation should improve, according to Mawela. The company ascribed Zambia’s losses to widespread power outages brought on by the drought, which left some areas without power for up to 23 hours every day.
Multichoice also mentioned shifting audience choices and competition from streaming services as threats to its established pay-TV business model. To adjust, MultiChoice spent an extra ZAR1.6 billion on Showmax, its streaming Service, which saw a 50% increase in revenue year over year.
Mawela went on to say: “Showmax strategically positions the business to actively participate in the streaming revolution as it gains momentum across Africa.”
