South Africa operations
MultiChoice South Africa continues to be the largest investor in local and sports content in South Africa and plays a meaningful role in further developing the local film and production industry
Our contributions to Rest of Africa
fulltime employees
(FY22: 3 620)
total tax contributions
(FY22: ZAR6.9bn)
Our operating performance
90-day active subscribers
(FY22: 9.0m)
in mass market segment
(FY22: 7%)
The South Africa segment accounted for 59.2% (FY22: 64.7%) of group revenues in FY23 and 39.6% (FY22: 41.3%) of our group's 90‑day active subscriber base at year‑end.
The South African business demonstrated resilience in what was an increasingly challenging period. Macro‑economic and consumer pressure points continued to grow, exacerbated by the impact of persistent and elevated loadshedding which deteriorated into the fourth quarter of our FY23. As loadshedding escalates beyond stage 4, we have seen an increasingly negative impact on TV viewership and subscriber activity. This has translated into lower‑than‑expected subscriber activity and subscription revenues in the SA business. Although we were able to grow our 90‑day active subscriber base by 0.3m subscribers YoY, we saw a decoupling of our 90‑day active and current active subscriber metrics at March 2023 as illustrated by the 0.1m YoY decline in our current active base. We continue driving operational efficiencies and digital agility, as we aim to leverage the momentum generated by the COVID‑19 lockdowns in accelerating the pace of digital adoption in the business.
Our mass market tier sustained growth of 10% YoY despite a weighted average 4% price increase for our mass tier at the beginning of the year. We remain excited about the mass market opportunity and regard our Access base as a springboard for future growth and ARPU uplift as income levels of consumers improve over time and our product offers widen. We are already seeing some of this materialise through upgrades from Access to Family within the mass segment, driven by a compelling content offering and targeted campaigns and upgrade strategies.
90-day active subscribers (m)
Our mid‑market segment tier declined by 3% YoY as our Compact base is most exposed to the current challenges in the macro‑economic environment. On top of the loadshedding challenges explained above, our mid‑market customers are most impacted by rising inflation (notably energy and food costs), rising interest rates in a segment of the market that is increasingly over‑indebted and elevated unemployment. Nonetheless, our team has been working hard to revitalise the Compact value proposition by:
- working with the PSL to optimise the DStv Premiership for improved fan engagement while also leveraging the tournament to drive positive awareness of our family of brands,
- launching the dedicated Compact Cup to better bridge the football offseason,
- rejuvenating our Compact branding for a younger, more tech‑savvy demographic with our 'iRep Impilo' campaign, and
- continuing to invest in the leading local content in our market, while developing innovative new offerings like Big Brother Clash of the Titans.
Our premium tier decreased by a further 6% YoY in FY23. However, in terms of the underlying components of our premium tier, we are seeing a further deceleration in subscriber losses in our Premium base, which is indicative of both our focused work behind retaining and engaging our Premium base by enhancing our consumer value proposition, and a trend towards a core segment of households who want to have the best of what the South African market can offer in entertainment. In contrast, our Compact Plus base is under the same pressure points as our Compact base and is weighing on the performance of our premium tier.
We continue to build out our OTT and aggregation strategy
We introduced several product additions and improvements during the year such as Disney+, Universal Plus, and 4k football for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and recorded a strong year of growth in our DStv via Streaming product.
In order to support our customers on their digital enablement journey, while also creating opportunities to offer them bundled service savings, we have enhanced our connectivity offerings. Our DStv Internet fixed-wireless LTE service, which we launched in FY22, saw encouraging traction this year. As a result, we launched a DStv Internet fibre service in the second half of the year, which shows promise based on early customer engagement with the product offering.
The ongoing shift in subscriber mix, with growth in the base predominantly driven by our Access package at a R120 price point, resulted in blended ARPU declining by 5% from ZAR269 in the prior year to ZAR256.
While there is still a healthy base of Premium subscribers, we continue to see a gradual shift in revenue mix, as the mass market maintains healthy growth momentum. Short‑term pressure in our mid-market is negatively impacting mix trends, while the impact of loadshedding on activity rates has also weighed on our ARPU.
That said, we still see potential for our mass and mid-market subscribers to follow an upgrade journey over time as economic circumstances improve. In this regard, we have implemented upgrade strategies such as open periods and episode previews to help customers discover shows that they might enjoy on higher packages. In addition, our longer‑term ambition is to stabilise and then improve ARPUs through a focus on an improved core value proposition for our subscribers and the introduction and scaling of additional value-added services like our internet and on-demand emergency response products.
Digitalisation remains a core focus
Our self-service platforms continue delivering a strong uptake with total 90-day
Our insurance business grew its customer base by
(FY22: 2.4m)
Our insurance business grew its customer base by 19% YoY (FY22: 11%). Our current product stack includes device and life products (subscription waiver, funeral and debt waiver). Growth over the past year was mainly driven by our life products which grew by 345% YoY, while our more mature device Insurance business still showed decent growth at 4% YoY.
