MultiChoice Group has posted its full-year 2022 result, which shows Nigeria leads the Rest of Africa (RoA) in the percentage of subscription revenue and y-o-y subscription growth.
This report shows that despite the high inflation, fuel scarcity and electricity blackout in Nigeria compared to what other Africans pay monthly for subscription, Nigeria led in number of MultiChoice subscriber base.
The report on DStv revealed that subscription packages in some other countries like Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Angola and Nigeria subscription rates vary.
Converting the amount paid in other African countries using the official dollar rate to compare the amount paid, here are the results:
In Kenya which ranks second in subscription, DSTV package such as Premium KES 8,400 = $71.37 which is ₦29, 639, Compact Plus cost KES 5,100 = $43.3 which is ₦18, 010, Compact is KES 2,800 = $23.78 which is ₦9, 888, Access/Family KES 1,050 = $8.92 which is ₦3, 705.
In Zambia, Premium is sold for K850 = $49.99 which is ₦20, 745, Compact Plus is K490 = $28.64 which is ₦11, 885, Compact K330 = $19.29 which is ₦ 8, 005, Family K210 = $12.27 which is ₦5, 092, Access K115 = $6.72 which is ₦2, 788.
In South Africa Premium package cost R839 = $53 which is ₦22,233, Compact Plus cost R549 = $34.68 which is ₦15,547, Compact R429 = $27.10 which is ₦11,246, Family R309 = $19.52 which ₦8, 100, Access is R120 = $7.85 which ₦3,257.
While in Angola Mega Package is AOA 22,000 = $51.45, Premium is sold for AOA18,000 = $42.09 which is ₦17,467, Bue is R15,850 = $37.7 which is ₦15,645, Family is subscription monthly is AOA 14,900 = $34.84 which is $14,458.
In Nigeria Premium package for DStv subscription is ₦21,000, Compact is ₦9,000, Yanga is ₦3,000 and Padi is ₦2,200.
Though the factor used as measure or justification for the difference in price is yet to be known as at the time of this report, other factors like cost of running business, tax, epileptic power supply and some other factors may be a major contributor to the price difference.
According to the MultiChoice report, compared to other African countries with MultiChoice presence such as Kenya, Zambia and Angola, South Africa, 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.” the CEO added.