INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT FOR PHUTHUMA NATHI INVESTMENTS (RF) LIMITED

13 / 106

REVIEW (CONTINUED)
MultiChoice South Africa Holdings Proprietary Limited / Integrated annual report 2017 11 v
COMBINED CHAIR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REVIEW
OVERVIEW
South Africa’s currency remained weak over the
past year, having depreciated by close to 30%
over the past three years. Pro tability was
negatively impacted by the continued weakness
of the currency since we earn our revenues in
South African rand. In addition, the largest part
of our cost base is US dollar denominated and
coupled with increased competition, which is
further driving up the cost of content, there has
been an inevitable impact on operating margins.
In response, and to mitigate some of the impact,
the business continued to focus on cost
reduction.
Despite the factors alluded to earlier, the group
produced satisfactory nancial results and
continued to create value for stakeholders.
This demonstrates the management teams'
continued commitment and focus in meeting
the group’s objectives and execution of
strategies to ensure value creation for all
stakeholders. This report illustrates our
commitment to sustainability and our objective
of enriching the lives of all our stakeholders.
REVIEW OF OPERATIONS
We added 625 000 customers (around
11% growth) across our packages (reaching
a high of 6,3m households). This growth was
achieved through additional investment in local
and international content and the successful
renegotiation of key sports rights.
Our agship decoder, the DStv Explora,
maintained its popularity and was named
TV gadget of the year by the authoritative
technology magazine Stuff. We launched the
second generation of our agship decoder,
DStv Explora 2, a streamlined version, at
increasingly competitive prices that offers
customers the same great entertainment on
and BoxOf ce, as well as the ability to
connect to the internet to enjoy an extended DStv
Catch Up library (DStv Catch Up Plus).
Understanding that the connected world is the
future, we continue to improve our technologies
to connect our customers to the greatest
content anywhere, anytime. We have further
enhanced our service and
continue to focus on helping more customers
connect their DStv Exploras to the internet to
Muted economic growth, driven by low commodity prices, drought, political uncertainty and
continued currency weakness produced some of the toughest operating conditions in over
two decades. Despite this, we continued to grow our business by delivering great content
and service to our customers.
MultiChoice remains committed to its contributions to society through, among others, the
Phuthuma Nathi share schemes. Phuthuma Nathi companies have received some R7,8bn
in dividends since inception, ultimately empowering and enriching the lives of thousands
of South Africans.