MultiChoice’s latest annual results show its pay-TV service DStv lost South African subscribers between 31 March 2022 and 31 March 2023.
Its subscribers declined from 8.16 million to 8.016 million between these two dates — a reduction of roughly 144,000 or 1.8%.
Between the two previous years, 2021 and 2022, the decline was much lower — from 8.177 million to 8.16 million — a loss of about 17,000 year-end subscribers.
Before these decreases, DStv was adding subscribers every year.
While the latest decline is noteworthy, MultiChoice emphasizes a 90-day active subscriber number as the primary measurement of the size of its customer base.
It first introduced this method in 2020, reporting the number of subscribers active within a three-month period instead of the number of paying customers on the last day of its financial year.
Nevertheless, it has included its year-end subscriber numbers in each report.
The graph below shows how DStv’s subscriber numbers changed from March 2018 to March 2023.
DStv’s 90-day active subscribers in South Africa increased from 9 million to 9.3 million between the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 financial years, a jump of 3%.
MultiChoice said the actual 90-day active subscribers added were around 290,000.
However, out of the three main segments that make up its customer base, only the entry-level Mass-market customers grew— climbing 10% from 4.9 million to 5.3 million.
These customers are subscribed to entry-level packages like EasyView, Access, and Family, which are much cheaper than higher-end bouquets in the Mid-market and Premium segments.
Each of these segments saw a reduction of about 100,000 90-day active subscribers.
It is possible that some of these subscribers migrated to cheaper packages in the other segments, rather than dropping DStv altogether.
In the Mid-Market segment — which includes Compact and Commercial packages — 90-day active subscribers dropped from 2.8 million to 2.7 million, a 3% decline.
On the Premium and Compact Plus packages that fall under the Premium segment, DStv lost 6% of its customers, resulting in a drop from 1.4 million to 1.3 million.
While the broadcaster has been bleeding customers in this top-end segment for several years, this drop comes close to its worst yet — the 8% decline from its 2020/2021 financial year.
However, in that instance, Covid-19 was believed to have played a role in consumers’ cost-cutting.
The charts below show how DStv’s 90-day active subscriber base changed between its 2022 and 2023 financial years.
MultiChoice said load-shedding was a major reason for the disconnect between its 90-day and year-end subscriber numbers.
“There was a noticeable increase in churn when load-shedding reaches stage 4 and above, even when consumers have disposable income,” it stated.
It said the higher 90-day active subscriber figure shows customers still value the DStv product, while the 140,000 decline in year-end subscriber numbers showed customers were more selective when they signed up to avoid periods of excessive load-shedding.
The overall result of the above is a 5% decline in the blended average revenue per user (ARPU) of all DStv customers from R269 to R256.
Despite acquiring customers in the Mass-market, DStv’s ARPU of R96 in this segment has also come down.
This suggests a trend of customers within this segment who are downgrading from the more expensive entry-level packages to cheaper ones.
The graphic below from MultiChoice provides details about the key ARPU drivers at DStv.
Outside of South Africa, MultiChoice increased its customer count — both in terms of year-end and 90-day active subscribers.
Year-end subscribers in the Rest of Africa (RoA) grew from 8.48 million to 9.29 million, a 10% jump.
On a 90-day active basis, RoA subscribers increased by 11%, going from just over 12.79 million to more than 14.20 million.
However, the RoA division generated only around half the revenue of the South African business — R22.95 billion against R41.96 billion —and a fraction of the trading profit — R898 million versus R8.49 billion.
Despite having more subscribers than the South African business, RoA contributed a blended ARPU of $7.3 (R136), 47% less than the South African ARPU.
Source: Bulawayo24
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