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MultiChoice South Africa Holdings Proprietary Limited
Integrated annual report 2018
Soccer League (PSL) in South Africa, UEFA
Champions League (UCL), as well as the
Discovery, Disney and Turner offerings.
We also acquired the rights to the popular
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
This, in addition to key once-off properties
such as the Conor McGregor versus Floyd
Mayweather fight (which drew record
viewership across platforms in 2018), allows
us to continue to serve our customers with
top quality local and international content.
Investment in local content remains core to
our strategy (primarily through the Mzansi
group of channels) with our efforts being well
received by customers with our channels
among the top performers in their peer
group. We launched 1Magic, to cater for
the Premium local audience anchored by
a high-quality local telenovela – The River.
Furthermore, Showmax launched Tali’s
Wedding, our first original production.
By commissioning local content, we are
building an African library that can be used
on all group-owned platforms. Accordingly,
investing in local content across all our
territories remains a focus.
SuperSport continued to strengthen its
position as arguably the best aggregator
of sport content globally. Significant
investments in local and international content
on all platforms ensured customers were
entertained in multiple languages across
our broadcast territory.
Customer service
Our customers, the cornerstone of our
business, remain essential to our success.
We have ramped up our customer retention
and service-delivery initiatives, including:
promoting DStv Explora sales through the
’Price Lock’ campaign, promoting fixed-term
As a proudly South African business we
continue to drive investment in South Africa
with R8,4bn spent with BBBEE suppliers,
including small and medium enterprises of
which R1,3bn was with suppliers with at
least 30% black female ownership, R2,8bn
spent on salaries, R60,1m spent on flagship
initiatives, and R6,9bn paid in direct and
indirect taxes.
Review of operations
Performance
Despite a tough economic and uncertain
political environment, we managed customer
growth of more than 500 000 and are now
approaching 7m total customers. The trend
of growth in the mass market continues, while
our Premium tier is showing declining growth
and the Compact tier is starting to stabilise.
Improved churn management and cost
control contributed positively to the growth
in net profit of 14% (2017: 14%).
Product enhancements
We continue to enhance our product offering
to deliver the best customer experience. Our
online properties are gaining traction, and
to increase access to DStv Now we have
opened it to all bouquet tiers including offering
Showmax to our Premium tier at no extra
charge. Explora penetration, BoxOffice rentals
and connected Explora connections also
recorded pleasing growth during the year.
We created a Connected Video division, by
merging our Showmax Africa and Digital
Media operations into our management
structure to ensure seamless focus of
our online products.
Content
We have successfully renewed key
entertainment and sports rights including
the English Premier League (EPL), Premier
Executive chair
’
s review
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Review
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