Nigeria takes lead in MultiChoice subscription revenue
Despite high inflation, fuel shortages and frequent electricity blackouts in Nigeria, South African-based pay-TV operator MultiChoice Group’s full-year 2022 results showed Nigeria leads the Rest of Africa (RoA) in the percentage of subscription revenue and y-o-y subscription growth.
Checks showed that when compared to other African countries with MultiChoice presence such as Kenya, Zambia and Angola, Nigeria ranked first with y-o-y subscription growth of 11% and 43% of subscription revenue in full-year 2022.
The growth was on the back of regionalisation which produced positive results to unlock market potential and agreement with FIRS to postpone court challenges and to commence tax audit.
Also, the popularity of local content like Big Brother Naija had a massive impact on the performance of the RoA operations.
Kenya followed with a drop of 4% in y-o-y subscription growth and 9% growth in subscription revenue during the financial year. Zambia reported a drop of 3% in y-o-y subscription growth and 7% growth in subscription revenues in FY’2022, while Angola trailed with y-o-y subscription growth of 1% and 5% of subscription revenue in FY’2022.
Calvo Mawela, the CEO of MultiChoice Group, said: “Reduced losses in the Rest of Africa (RoA), a rebound in advertising revenues and a continued focus on cost containment enabled us to absorb the R1.1bn ($74.5 million) impact of a normalisation in content costs as live sport returned and we resumed our local content production post the COVID-19 lockdowns.”
“As a platform of choice, our group will look to further expand our entertainment ecosystem by identifying growth opportunities that leverage our scale and local capabilities.”
MultiChoice Group posted a trading profit in the sum of $697.8 million (about N292 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2022, rising marginally by 0.4% over what it recorded the previous year.
Its Rest of Africa (RoA) operations, which include Nigeria, reported $81.3 million in trading.
Core headline earnings, which measures the board’s sustainable business performance, were up by 6 per cent at $237.1 million.
