MultiChoice reports record 1.3 million pay TV additions

South African media conglomerate Naspers, the owner of pay TV service provider MultiChoice, has added a record 1.3 million pay TV subscribers year-on-year for the period ending March 31.

Announcing its annual results, Naspers, which provides pay TV services through MultiChoice under the DStv and GOtv brands, said that its pay TV subscriber base now stands at more than 8 million – roughly 5 million of those in South Africa and the remaining 3 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“The pay television business, which covers 50 countries on the African continent, reported 20% growth in revenues to R36.3bn (€2.54 billion),” the firm added.

Naspers said that continued expansion of digital terrestrial services, more investment in local content and an increase in online service offerings resulted in a slower growth in trading profit of 13% to R8.5bn.

GOtv, which offers DTT pay-television services in 11 countries on the African sub-continent ended March with 817,000 customers, up from 377,000 a year earlier.

“Our belief is that, through a combination of attractive markets with development potential and appealing customer product offerings such as online classifieds, etail and DTT, we have realistic, solid prospects for growth and value creation over time,” said Naspers CEO, Bob van Dijk.

Overall, Naspers operates pay-tv subscriber platforms in 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, bringing services to more than 8 million households. Its operations include MultiChoice, which operates the DStv and GOtv brands, channel provider M-Net and sports broadcaster SuperSport.