MultiChoice has reportedly lost 400 000 subscribers in South Africa.
It isn’t a great time for South African company MultiChoice who recently lost 400 000 DStv subscribers. News24 writes that this indicates a shift towards streaming services. Also, the decline is said to span across premium, mid-market, and mass-market segments.
The company is reported to currently be investing in Showmax to compete with global streaming giants including Netflix and Amazon Prime. Duncan McLeod of Tech Central published a report revealing that the ‘rest of Africa’ business, excluding South Africa, saw a 13% decrease in subscriber numbers. Countries like Nigeria, Angola and Zambia have recorded many of these numbers decline.
Annual results released by MultiChoice on March 31 revealed that the South African business was not hit as much, recording only a 5% decline, showing a subscriber base of 7.6 million households. This means that MultiChoice lost 400 000 subscribers in the last 12 months.
MSN writes that the MultiChoice Group is in the process of being acquired by France’s Groupe Canal+. The South African also reports that the local unit of the MultiChoice Group was fined 150 million naira (R1.77 million) for contempt of court by a Nigerian consumer tribunal. The company was ordered to offer its subscribers one month of free service.
