Embattled and financially insolvent MultiChoice reported that it will suffer another blow as its interim loss for the 2025 financial year will be larger than last year's.
According to its interim financial statements for the six months through to September 2024, the DStv owner is expected to lose an estimated R1.84 billion.
Why is the company failing?
MultiChoice said that its poor financial performance has been impacted by severe pressure in the macroeconomic, foreign exchange rate, and consumer environment in key markets, most notably Nigeria and Zambia.
The company acknowledged that it is facing “the most challenging operating environment in the group’s history”.
“MultiChoice is pursuing an inflationary pricing strategy and targeting R2 billion in cost savings in the group's full-year results ending March 31, 2025, to offset weaker subscriber activity and foreign exchange pressures,” the company said.
The group has made strong progress against these objectives on a year-to-date basis.
Consumers are just not interested
In early October, MultiChoice’s annual report showed that more than 400,000 people in South Africa dumped DStv.
The report showed that the pay channel’s subscribers had declined to 7.6 million in the year ended 2023/24, compared to 8 million in the previous financial year.
It seemed that more and more South Africans are letting go of their DStv contracts as they move to more affordable uncapped internet solutions and other streaming services like Showmax, Netflix and Disney+.
South Africa accounts for 48.5% of MultiChoice’s active subscribers and makes up around 60% of the company’s revenue.
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