MultiChoice withholds dividend
June 15, 2023
By Chris Forrester

South African broadcasting giant MultiChoice Group has reported its annual profit rose 2 per cent in its financial year to March 31st. It said it had enjoyed strong overall subscriber growth and profit elsewhere in Africa which helped offset poor market conditions in South Africa itself.
For the year to March 31st, core headline earnings per share, which strips off some non-recurring costs and foreign currency fluctuations, rose to R8.28 from R8.14 a year ago.
MultiChoice Group says it continued to scale its overall subscriber base, primarily through a strong performance in the Rest of Africa. The group added 1.7 million 90-day active subscribers, representing 8 percent (YoY) growth, to close the year on 23.5 million subscribers. The 90-day subscriber base comprised 14.2 million households (60 per cent) in the Rest of Africa and 9.3 million households (40 per cent) in South Africa. The strong performance in the Rest of Africa, which added 1.4 million subscribers, was underpinned by the FIFA World Cup. In contrast, the South African consumer environment weakened sharply, especially in the second half of its financial year.
However, MultiChoice said it would not pay a dividend for the trading year, saying the strength of its balance sheet remains a “core focus”, given the local economic crisis, weaker rand and funding needs for the business such as its streaming platform, Showmax.
Africa’s biggest pay-TV operator entered into an agreement in March with US media conglomerate Comcast to create a pan-African streaming platform built on the Showmax platform.
Showmax will be majority owned by MultiChoice, and would combine fresh investment in local content with international content licensed from NBCUniversal and Europe’s Sky.