South African Pay-TV operator cum video entertainment company, Multichoice Group, has revealed that its Nigerian unit, Multichoice Nigeria lost 243,000 subscribers across its DStv and GOtv services in the six months covering April to September this year.

The group disclosed this in its Interim Financial Results for the six months ended 30 September 2024, released on Tuesday, November 12. It said the lost was due to high inflation in Nigeria at over 30 per cent driven by the high cost of food, electricity, and fuel, which forced many of its customers to ditch their decoders.

While the actual figure was not disclosed at that time, Multichoice had also declared the loss of 18 per cent of its Nigerian subscribers in its financial report for the year ended March 2024. The company added that the pressure on its subscriber base in ‘Rest of Africa’ operations continued from the previous year leading to a loss of 566,000 subscribers across the operations in the six months under review.

According to the pay-TV provider, two markets – Zambia and Nigeria – accounted for the lion’s share of the loss, noting that the subscribers lost in the last six months was a decline compared with the 803,000 lost in the previous six months.

“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. Of this decline, 298k related to Zambia and 243k related to Nigeria, with remaining markets on the continent reflecting only a minor decline of 25k,” the company stated in its financial results.

While inflation is blamed for the loss in Nigeria, Multichoice Group attributed the loss in Zambia to drought-driven power outages of up to 23 hours a day. The Group CEO, Calvo Mawela in his comments on the company’s results, said the company is facing its most challenging operating conditions in almost 40 years.

To generate returns, he said the group has been proactive in its focus to ”right-size” the business for the current economic realities and industry changes. He noted that operating across Africa typically subjects the group to currency moves, abnormal currency weakness over the past 18 months has reduced the group’s profits by close to R7 billion.

“Combined with the impact of a weak macro environment on consumers’ disposable income and therefore on subscriber growth, it required the Group to fundamentally adjust its cost base – which is exactly what has been done.

“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. We expect to return to a positive net equity position by the end of November this year, supported by a number of developments and initiatives. The Group’s liquidity position remains strong, with over ZAR10bn in total available funds,” Mawela said

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