• In its latest results for the year ended 2023, MultiChoice has revealed its business lost R2.9 billion.
• In contrast, the entertainment provider made R2.9 billion in profits in 2022, and R4 billion in 2021.
• MultiChoice blames South Africa’s loadshedding, interest rate hikes, inflation and other woes as reasons for the profit freefall.

DStv owner and pan-African entertainment provider MultiChoice admits to losing billions in the financial year, a sharp contrast to its performance one year prior. The company, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, says the spending power of local customers has “weakened sharply,” influencing the lack of profit.

For the year ended 31st March 2023, MultiChoice suffered a loss of R2.9 billion, erasing its gains from the same period in 2022 when it made R2.9 billion in profits. Earnings (loss) per share slumped to minus R8.15, according to its latest financial results (PDF).

This marks a huge dive in the ability of the Group, which calls itself Africa’s entertainment leader, to turn a profit. In contrast to the latest figures, MultiChoice made R4 billion in 2021.

MultiChoice says that while its Rest of Africa business showcased a strong performance, its South African arm was hamstrung by relentless loadshedding, interest rate hikes, elevated inflation and the weakened Rand against the US Dollar.

These woes in the local market “left a large portion of the group’s customer base unable to watch or afford video entertainment services,” it explained.

Its South African subscriber base shrunk by 144 000 in the period, a 2 percent decrease from the year prior. It still has more than 8 million paying subscribers in the country.

Weak performance in South Africa, the decision to pull all Russian-based operations, continued investments into its Showmax streaming service and a troublesome foreign exchange rate all funnelled down into the group’s monumental loss for the year.

Because of the company’s future uncertainty, it has decided to not pay any dividends to shareholders for the financial year of 2023. Ailing telecommunications firm Telkom recently made a similar decision.

While its South African business languished, operations in other African countries in which MultiChoice operates proved more optimistic. Rest of Africa saw nearly 1 million more subscribers added to the platform, with a total of 9.2 million subscribers across 15 countries including Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya and more.

As for what MultiChoice will focus on next, it says that it has completed a transaction that sees 30 percent of its ShowMax platform in the hands of America’s NBCUniversal. As part of the deal, ShowMax will be moved to NBC’s Peacock streaming platform.

“New products and launch dates will be announced in due course, with the [new ShowMax] expected to go live in the second half of FY24,” it said.

The company has also turned to fintech products and will be launching a digital payments processing platform called “Moment” in 16 African countries.