South Africans are dumping DStv as access to affordable uncapped broadband improves and online streaming services gain popularity.
MultiChoice’s annual report for the year ended 31 March 2024 revealed that active DStv subscribers in South Africa declined from 8.0 million to 7.6 million over the last year.
Although South Africa only accounted for 48.5% of MultiChoice’s active subscribers, it accounted for 60% of group revenue.
This means South Africa is a core part of MultiChoice’s operations and is important to ensure its financial sustainability.
However, the company is struggling to hold on to its subscribers – South Africans are dumping DStv in droves.
“Active subscribers declined from 8.0 million to 7.6 million, while the 90-day active base reduced from 9.3 million to 8.6 million,” MultiChoice said.
What is particularly concerning is that all segments of MultiChoice’s DStv subscriber base declined.
DStv Premium declined by 8% year-on-year.
DStv mid-market declined by 9% year-on-year.
DStv mass market declined by 1% year-on-year.
Simply put, DStv is losing subscribers across the board, and there is no clear way to convince them to return.
Multichoice, dusted off its book of excuses, including severe economic pressure, consumers’ financial distress, the high cost of living, and elevated interest rates.
“The impact of consistent load-shedding creates an environment where customers are reluctant to reconnect,” MultiChoice said.
“This translated into an overall drop in viewership, subscriber activity, and subscriber numbers.”
However, as MultiChoice should have discovered by now, excuses do not make up for lost subscribers or lower revenue.
Multichoice’s financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024 showed that it recorded a R4.1 billion loss and has become technically insolvent.
The bad news for MultiChoice is that the factors that caused its subscriber decline and dismal financial position are accelerating.
The main reason for DStv Premium’s decline over the last eight years was a combination of uncapped fibre and Netflix launching in South Africa.
Uncapped fibre was initially only available in richer areas, so DStv Premium was the first segment to decline.
As uncapped fibre and wireless alternatives, like Rain, started reaching middle- and lower-income areas, those households also started to dump DStv.
Companies like Vumatel and Herotel are now accelerating the rollout of affordable fibre services in lower-income communities.
It does not take a rocket scientist to predict what will happen to DStv subscriptions in these areas as households get uncapped Internet access.
To make matters worse, online streaming is also improving rapidly. Netflix and Amazon Prime are no longer DStv’s main concerns.
Whether people are looking for sports, movies, TV series, or documentaries, a streaming service serves that need. Many of them are free.
MultiChoice saw this problem coming and, in preparation, launched two initiatives – bundled broadband access and a bundled streaming package.
However, these initiatives were not as successful as MultiChoice would have hoped. It failed to get the traction it anticipated.
Multichoice discontinued its DStv Internet fibre products, including bundled offers that combined Premium or Compact subscriptions.
MultiChoice told MyBroadband it will “continue to review the DStv Internet offerings as demands shift.”
To rub salt into their wounds, Telkom plans to launch a content platform with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and other streaming services for one fee.
Telkom is building a content aggregating platform where users can subscribe to a bundle of streaming services.
Telkom Consumer CEO Lunga Siyo said Telkom will provide the data needed for their subscribers to stream the content they subscribe to.
As entertainment moved from satellite to Internet streaming, it opened the door for companies like Telkom to compete against MultiChoice.
Multichoice previously warned that over-the-top (OTT) streaming providers like Netflix and YouTube pose an existential competitive threat to its DStv offering.
This scenario is now coming true, and unless MultiChoice can become a big streaming player through
Showmax and DStv Stream, it will face serious challenges.
– Daily Investor (South Africa)