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)

“There’s no way they would mention Fred Amata, that they won’t mention Agatha Amata because I have two children for him, and I married him…”

Seventeen years (now 19) after her marriage to actor Fred Amata ended, media entrepreneur and talk show host, Agatha Amata, says people still pray they reconcile.

Ms Amata, the CEO of RaveTV Lagos and Trend FM100.9, Asaba, divorced the famous actor in 2005.

They have two children, Oreva and Stephanie.

Three years after their divorce, her ex-husband welcomed a daughter, Zino, with actress and ex-beauty queen, Ibinabo Fiberisima, in London.

Ms Amata became famous for her talk show, ‘Inside Out with Agatha’, which is said to be the longest-running television talk show in Nigeria, airing for over twenty years.

In an interview with Chude Jideonwo on the show #WithChude, Ms Amata opened up about single motherhood and how she handled the divorce, among other issues.

Getting back together

Ms Amata stated that, to date, some people still wish that she reunited with her ex-husband.

She said people asked her to get back together with the veteran actor for the sake her children.

“Some people still say that they pray Fred and I will get back together. I meet these people every day.

“I know that everybody wishes you well, but I always say to people, you can’t expect me better than I want myself. So if on my wedding day, as I was dancing and rejoicing, I certainly had no plans to leave the marriage.”

Ms Amata, a graduate of Botany from the University of Jos, also said that nobody in their right mind gets married with the hopes of getting a divorce.

“Let me say clearly, an unhappy home can never breed happy children.

“It’s not possible. If anything, it is going to injure those children and their outlook and their approach to marriage. The best you can do is for both of you to try to remain friends, as difficult as it may be, which is what I tried to do,” she said.

Acknowledging that the marriage didn’t work, the CEO, who retained her ex-husband’s surname, said she would not beat herself about it for the rest of her life.

I had to acknowledge that there’s no way they would mention Fred Amata, that they won’t say Agatha Amata because I have two children for him, and I married him.

“Amata’s ex-wife. That’s the introduction. It doesn’t matter what. I’m sure that even if I remarry and they want to introduce me, they will say ‘the former wife of…’.”

Ms Amata, who grew up partly in Kano, said she has come to embrace it, acknowledge it and work with it.

Speaking on the show, the 53-year-old media entrepreneur revealed that she put certain aspects of her life on hold to focus on raising her children.

She said she had no friends as everything about her life became about her children.

She said, “I stopped everything and focused on my children. If you look around, even in my office, their bed was there.

“Even when I sent them abroad to study, every month I was in their school. If they had Parents Day, I was there. They had anything they had to do, and I was there.”

– Premium Times

Anthony Joshua hasn’t had the best of weeks.

After going in as favourite for his fight against Daniel Dubois, the former two-time unified world heavyweight champion was stopped in brutal fashion.

It was a stunning display by Dubois, the current IBF world heavyweight champion, as he dominated Joshua in a manner that no previous boxer has been able to.

In a thoroughly deserved victory, Dubois showed that he should not have been underestimated as he had been.

For Anthony Joshua, it asked more questions for him at this stage of his career.

Does he want to continue boxing?

Or should this be the end of the road for the Olympic gold medalist?

The latest news emerging for Joshua is likely not what he wants to hear right now.