The offer, which begins on Friday, 27th December, and runs until Sunday, 29th December 2024, will allow subscribers across all packages, including those with inactive accounts, to enjoy premium content at no extra charge.

In a statement released on Thursday, the company described the initiative as a unique seasonal gift to its customers. “As we wind down the year and celebrate the holidays, DStv is happy to announce that we are making this December one to remember. 

“For 72 hours, the only thing standing between you and the best in sports, kids’ programming, movies, and local dramas is your decoder. No payments or calls required.” the statement read.

The initiative comes as MultiChoice faces some challenges in Nigeria’s competitive pay-TV market. Between April and September 2024, the company reported a loss of 243,000 subscribers due to economic pressures, including high inflation and increased living costs. 

MultiChoice Nigeria has raised its subscription prices three times within the past year, which may have further contributed to the decline in active users.

In addition to economic difficulties, MultiChoice has faced regulatory issues. Earlier this year, a Nigerian tribunal fined the company ₦150 million for implementing a price hike despite a court order. 

The tribunal also directed MultiChoice to provide one month of free access to its services as compensation for customers.

The South African-based company has acknowledged the growing competition in the media sector, with the rise of streaming platforms and changing consumer habits challenging the traditional pay-TV model. 

MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela, noted that the firm is adapting to these changes while struggling with economic challenges in key markets like Nigeria.

This free-access initiative appears to be part of the company’s initiatives to reconnect with lapsed customers and strengthen its place in the Nigerian market.

With no payments required, subscribers only need to activate their decoders to enjoy the full range of DStv’s premium offerings during the 72-hour period.

The post DStv Offers Free Access to All Channels for Three Days appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This decline, revealed in the company’s interim financial report released on Tuesday, follows Nigeria’s skyrocketing inflation rate, which has surpassed 30%. 

Increasing costs of essential goods, such as food, fuel, and electricity, have stressed household budgets, leading many customers to discontinue their DStv and GOtv subscriptions.

MultiChoice Group’s CEO, Calvo Mawela, described these conditions as some of the most challenging in nearly four decades. Nigeria’s inflation has been a persistent issue for the company, contributing to the sharp decline in its subscriber base and prompting price adjustments for its services. 

Within the past 12 months, MultiChoice Nigeria raised its subscription prices on three occasions to keep up with operational expenses and currency fluctuations, with the latest increase in May 2024.

The company’s operations in Africa have been hit by similar economic challenges. Across the continent, MultiChoice reported a loss of 566,000 subscribers within the first half of the financial year. 

Zambia and Nigeria were among the most affected, accounting for over 95% of the overall decline, with Zambia experiencing a loss of 298,000 customers amid extensive power outages attributed to drought. 

This continuous drop follows a reported decline of 803,000 subscribers in the second half of the previous financial year, pointing to the sustained impact of regional economic pressures on the company.

The competition from global streaming services has compounded MultiChoice’s challenges, as consumers increasingly shift towards on-demand content. 

In response, the company is investing heavily in Showmax, its streaming service, allocating an additional ZAR1.6 billion in the recent quarter. 

Showmax has reported a 50% growth in its user base year-over-year, becoming a good component in MultiChoice’s strategy to compete in the growing African streaming market.

Despite the setbacks, MultiChoice’s Mawela noted that the company expects to return to a positive net equity position by November 2024, partly due to cost-cutting measures and favourable liquidity, with over ZAR10 billion in available funds. 

This expected turnaround follows a period of technical insolvency, largely due to currency depreciation in several African markets, which has eroded the group’s profits by nearly R7 billion over the past 18 months.

In a regulatory setback, MultiChoice faced some issues in Nigeria this year over its latest price hike, with the Abuja-based Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal issuing a fine of N150 million for ignoring a restraining order on the new pricing structure. 

The Tribunal’s ruling also mandated a one-month free subscription for Nigerian DStv and GOtv customers, a directive aimed at compensating subscribers affected by the price increase.

The post Rising Living Costs Drive 243,000 Nigerians to Drop MultiChoice Services in 2024 appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This downturn comes as local currencies have been unstable, added to power disruptions, and a weak consumer environment heightened by rising inflation and high interest rates, ultimately affecting MultiChoice.

Despite these difficulties, the company has expanded and is currently the subject of a takeover bid by France’s Canal+.

MultiChoice’s financial performance has been impacted by adverse macroeconomic conditions. Group revenue declined by 5% to 56 billion rand, despite an organic increase of 3%. 

The group’s trading profit saw a 21% decline to 7.9 billion rand, influenced by a 4.5 billion rand impact from foreign exchange weaknesses. Again, a 9% drop in overall active subscribers further compounded the financial strain, with the Rest of Africa business experiencing a sharper 13% decline, particularly in Nigeria, Angola, and Zambia.

In South Africa, where the subscriber base decreased by 5%, the company faced 275 days of rolling power cuts, discouraging potential subscribers lacking backup power solutions. The challenging economic environment also led to a 20% decrease in adjusted core headline earnings to 1.3 billion rand.

Despite the financial setbacks, MultiChoice successfully launched Showmax 2.0, SuperSportBet, and Moment, contributing to future growth prospects. Showmax, relaunched across 44 markets in sub-Saharan Africa, reported a 22% revenue growth to 1 billion rand, with an encouraging increase in the paying subscriber base.

CEO Calvo Mawela noted the group’s resilience and strategic clarity, stating, “Our three core segments—video entertainment, interactive entertainment, and fintech—are now fully operational. Our focus now shifts to building on these solid foundations to drive growth in these new areas and further enhancing business efficiency across our operations.”

MultiChoice remains Africa’s largest producer of original content, with over 6,500 hours produced in FY24, expanding its local content library to over 84,000 hours. Highlights included the premiere of “Shaka Ilembe,” which became Africa’s biggest TV series, and the continued success of SuperSport, broadcasting 34,490 live events during the year.

In April 2024, Canal+, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group led by billionaire Vincent Bollore, made an offer to acquire all MultiChoice shares it does not currently own, upping an earlier rejected bid to 125 rand per share. Canal+ already holds over 35% of MultiChoice’s shares and sees this acquisition as a strategic move to enhance its presence in English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking African markets.

Canal+ is present in 25 African countries through 16 subsidiaries and has eight million subscribers. The takeover bid is currently under review by an independent board appointed by MultiChoice, which deemed the offer “fair and reasonable.”

Moving forward, MultiChoice plans to focus on scaling its new services, including Showmax, Moment, and SuperSportBet, while continuing to develop local content and sports renewals. The company also aims to enhance its cost-saving initiatives, targeting an additional 2 billion rand in savings to mitigate the ongoing impact of currency volatility and consumer weakness.

“The strength of our team and the clarity of our strategy underpin my confidence in delivering on our potential,” said Mawela. “We will continue to adapt our platforms to cater to customers’ evolving needs, positioning us well to prosper once currencies stabilize and economies rebound.”

The post MultiChoice Reports $38 Million Loss in FY2024 Despite Expansion appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Moment offers expanded payment infrastructure for businesses across Africa to help them collect and make payments easier, quicker, and more affordable in any manner that their buyers or suppliers prefer. Moment will also offer additional options for consumers to spend and save money more wisely. 

The aim is to transform the African payments landscape by making digital payments more accessible and reliable for domestic, cross-border and global payments.

“We are excited about our venture with Rapyd and General Catalyst. It will address the need for an accessible and reliable payment platform for many small businesses and millions of consumers in Africa. Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us, as we already process payments every month from 22 million households across 50 countries in Africa. Moment fulfills our strategy to expand our ecosystem, by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology”, said Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.

Moment will consolidate the $3.5 billion in payments that the MultiChoice Group processes annually to expand options for subscribers and make payment processes efficiently, as well as extend Africa’s most complete payment network to African and global businesses.

“We are thrilled to be able to partner with MultiChoice and our network partners to provide Africa’s most complete payment platform for businesses through Moment. Africa is one of the most exciting markets in the world – with tremendous opportunities to expand the use of digital payments, drive cash payments to real-time digital payments, and to capitalise on the tremendous entrepreneurial drive of African businesses,” says Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd.

“Africa represents one of the most exciting investment opportunities for global investors. Over the next 20 years, most of the population growth of the world will be happening in Africa, along with increasing urbanisation. African consumers and businesses are not only moving business online, but will be the labour force for the world across the next 20 years,” adds Adam Valkin, Managing Director at General Catalyst Partners.

The long-term plan is to provide the infrastructure for pan-African payments for the 44 million small businesses operating on the continent. It is also to turn the 90% of retail transactions that are currently taking place in cash, into digital payments. Moment aims to make digital transactions more accessible to the 350 million consumers that are underbanked or not banked at all.

Some of Moment’s long term service offering include:

• Payments across 40+ countries in Africa through 200+ locally preferred payment methods to collect, disburse and manage risk.
• Drive adoption of PayShap, TCIB, NQR, and other real-time payment methods across all markets.
• Global-Africa trade for importers and exporters with  virtual accounts in 40+ currencies and local payments in 130+ countries.
• Payment tools, deep inventory to sell and financial services for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs.
• Offering consumers payments, savings and rewards.

“Moment gives MultiChoice another opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of the African continent. It will play a key role in accelerating cash-to-digital payments for all consumers and businesses and making the continent more investment ready for global players, by connecting payments from Africa to the world,” Mawela concluded.

The post MultiChoice Group ventures into ePayment  appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This comes at a time when Africa is approaching an inflection point in terms of broadband connectivity and affordability. 

The new Showmax group will be 70% owned by MultiChoice and 30% by NBCUniversal. It will build on Showmax’s success to date and aim to create the leading streaming service in Africa.

Powered by Peacock’s leading, globally-scaled technology, Showmax subscribers will have access to an extensive premium content portfolio, bringing African audiences the best of local and international programming. 

The service will combine MultiChoice’s accelerating investment in local content with a unique pipeline of award-winning and critically acclaimed international content licensed from NBCUniversal and Sky, third party content from HBO, Warner Brothers International, Sony and others, as well as live English Premier League (EPL) football. 

The partnership will also provide access to all the best African content such as Showmax Originals and local content from MultiChoice’s proprietary channels including Mzansi Magic, Africa Magic and Maisha Magic. 

Using a significant portfolio of global media assets and Peacock’s streaming platform, which finished 2022 with over 20 million paid subscribers in the US, NBCUniversal and Sky will provide ongoing support through the licensing of both technology and content.

“We launched Showmax as the first African streaming service in 2015 and are extremely proud of its success to date. This agreement represents a great opportunity for our Showmax team to scale even greater heights by working with a leading global player in Comcast and its subsidiaries,” said Calvo Mawela, Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice.

“The new business venture deepens an already strong relationship and builds on the Sky Glass technology partnership that we announced in September last year. We believe we are extremely well positioned to create a winning platform going forward.”

Dana Strong, Group Chief Executive Officer, Sky, commented, “This new collaboration in streaming and content with MultiChoice, NBCUniversal, and Sky takes our partnership to the next level in one of the world’s most vibrant, fastest growing markets. Last year, we announced MultiChoice as a customer of the Sky Glass platform and now we are excited to help innovate its Showmax streaming service.”

Matt Strauss, Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer & International, NBCUniversal, added, “This partnership is an incredible opportunity to further scale the global presence of Peacock’s world-class streaming technology, as well as to introduce millions of new customers to extensive premium content from NBCUniversal and Sky’s stellar entertainment brands.”

The post MultiChoice, Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Sky Set to Bolster Streaming Service Offering in Africa appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.