MultiChoice is evolving from a conventional pay-TV provider into a comprehensive entertainment and consumer services company.
The company traces its roots back to M-Net, a satellite television subscription service launched in 1985, offering 12 hours of daily programming. Early on, it faced significant challenges. Nevertheless, its founder, Koos Bekker, persevered, convincing shareholders that pay-TV would lay the future. By September 1987, M-Net had placed decoders in 50,000 households, which doubled to 100,000 just six months later.
Bekker restructured M-Net into distinct divisions: one dedicated to entertainment channel transmission and the other to cellular services, signal distribution, and subscriber management, which ultimately became MultiChoice. In October 1995, Naspers launched Digital Satellite Television (DStv) in South Africa.
By 1996, the DStv service had expanded into other African markets and became increasingly popular as its channel selection grew. In 1997, MultiChoice acquired a significant stake in Irdeto, a global leader in digital platform cybersecurity.
In 2005, the launch of MultiChoice’s first personal video recorder (PVR) transformed the DStv experience. By 2010, DStv Catch Up was introduced, followed by the digital terrestrial TV platform GOtv and BoxOffice the next year. Over the following decade, several innovative products were launched, including the DStv Explora, Showmax, and the DStv App. By the mid-2010s, DStv boasted over 8 million subscribers, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 23% and establishing itself as the frontrunner in African pay-TV and sports broadcasting through SuperSport.
In 2019, MultiChoice Group was unbundled from Naspers and separately listed on the JSE. Growing rapidly, it reached 19.3 million households across 50 countries 39 years after launching in South Africa.
However, the industry faced significant disruptions due to affordable, uncapped broadband and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, leading to over 20 million subscriber losses for cable and satellite TV providers in the U.S. over the last decade. This trend is expected to continue, with 80 million households projected to cut the cord by 2026.
Despite these global challenges, DStv has remained surprisingly resilient, growing over the last six years. However, with the increased availability of fast, affordable fibre and the rise of streaming, it has faced mounting pressure. In 2023, MultiChoice reported 23.5 million 90-day active subscribers, but that number has since declined to 19.3 million, indicating that Africa is not insulated from the global cord-cutting trend, prompting a need for pay-TV operators to reassess their business strategies.
MultiChoice is adapting by transforming its model and focusing on becoming an entertainment and consumer services company. A central element of this strategy is Showmax, which is seeing promising growth with efforts to enhance its content offerings. The company is also establishing distribution partnerships, expanding payment channel integrations, and refining its marketing strategies.
Irdeto has also performed well, securing new customers in Asia and expanding its managed services presence in Australasia. MultiChoice’s sports betting platform, KingMakers, is gaining traction in Nigeria, where it occupies second in the online betting market. SuperSportBet, launched late last year in South Africa, has shown early success with a tenfold increase in net gaming revenue within nine months.
Moreover, MultiChoice’s fintech platform, Moment, is now operational in 40 African countries and experiencing rapid growth, with total payment volumes increasing significantly. The company is focused on enhancing profitability and cash flow from its South African operations while streamlining costs in other African regions to return to profitability. Investment in Showmax is also a priority, aiming to position it as the leading streaming platform on the continent.
In addition to these initiatives, MultiChoice is bolstering its revenue streams with KingMakers, Moment, and DStv Insurance, aiming to drive scalability. “By effectively executing these objectives, the group will be strategically positioned for future growth and value creation as Africa’s leading video entertainment platform,” MultiChoice affirmed.
