The question everyone’s been asking is, “What can Multichoice do next to keep the angry voices down?” It’s no secret that Multichoice and DStv aren’t exactly in the most publicly acceptable place right now with most people tending to rather dislike their service. Yet maybe the latest deal signed by Multichoice will be enough to do something to stop their slipping image.
MultiChoice will soon add both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as global video streamers to its DStv platform, with the pay-TV operator that continues to show growth – adding roughly another 900 000 DStv and GOtv subscribers over its last financial year.
The subscriber tally according to its latest 2019/2020 financial results released on Wednesday, is now 19.5 million.
MultiChoice already runs Showmax its own subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service.
By adding international streaming services to it’s existing DStv platform MultiChoice has now clearly decided that it will go the “super aggregator” way, similar to what pay-TV services ranging from the United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand have done over the past year.
In this way, existing subscribers get access to further streaming services through DStv, paying their monthly bill in local currency for the add-ons, lessening payment friction and providing one place for subscribers to find and watch the content they like.
“We have long been a content aggregator, and this is proof of our aggregator model at work – providing simplicity, choice and convenience for our customers,” says Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO.
“As our industry evolves, we believe that we are well-positioned to benefit from both worlds – a large, growing pay-TV market in Africa, as well as an emerging over-the-top (OTT) opportunity, where our own OTT services and aggregation capabilities can drive success.”
MultiChoice has shown a 5% increase in subscriber growth in its 2019/2020 financial year, taking its total pay-TV subscriber base to 19.5 million households.
South Africa still represents MultiChoice’s biggest and most powerful market, with 8.4 million pay-TV households, while the rest of Africa combined represents 11.1 million households.
Besides adding two global streaming services, MultiChoice is also getting ready to roll-out and launch its as-yet-unnamed “DStv dishless”, stand-alone DStv streaming service that will mimic its existing direct-to-Home (DTH) service but without the need for any installation.
MultiChoice added that over the last financial year it has produced 3 850 additional hours of local content with its local content library that now exceeds 56 800 hours. This means local content now accounts for 40% of its total content spend.
The company plans on doing two new co-productions, Blood Psalms and Rogue, launch four new local content TV channels including a new action movie channel and plans to further ramp up local content production in 2021.
(Source: MultiChoice FY20 Annual Results)
