MultiChoice Group Ltd have announced that they have signed deals with Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc to offer their streaming services through their next-generation Explora personal video recorder (PVR) decoder.
As global competition continues to grow in the streaming service market, this is a move intended to help them retain subscribers. Despite introducing their own streaming product in 2015 in the form of Showmax, US rivals have managed to gain a strong foothold on South African soil.
However Multichoice is still regarded as South Africa’s’s leading video entertainment company, CEO Calvo Mawela said of their 2020 financial results .”We are pleased with our performance and the resilience we have demonstrated this year. Our healthy balance sheet positions us well to weather uncertainties in our markets going forward. We have honoured our commitment to shareholders by declaring a maiden dividend of R2.5bn, on top of some R1.7bn in share buy-backs executed during the year.”
MultiChoice also said subscriber numbers rose by 5% in the year through March to 19.5 million households, with demand picking up at the end of that period as South Africa went into lockdown.
Currently, Showmax is offering subscribers plenty of local content, Trackers, a six-part series about organized crime set in Cape Town, was MultiChoice’s most-viewed show in the 2020 financial year, beating out the final season of the blockbuster hit “Game of Thrones”. A clear indication that for South African viewers "local is lekker."
A spokesperson has told the media that details on how the move could affect MultiChoice’s monthly fee will be announced in the coming weeks.
While the current financials are looking good for the group, Multichoice has admitted that the impact of COVID-19 on their business is not yet known. The production side of the organisation has swung into action again but with strict safety rules and regulations in place.
