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ZARc 11828 0.49%Investor briefcase Business model
Investor briefcase Business model
(1) Excludes operations in South Africa where our GOtv signal is distributed via Sentech.
| (1) | General Entertainment content. Numbers exclude religion, specialist, FTA and audio channels. Proprietary channel count includes channel brand variations for different regional or cultural preferences and/ or dialects. International channel count excludes specialist Indian, French and Chinese language channels. |
| (2) | Channel count includes regional variations for Africa and Nigeria. |
| (3) | Irdeto also provides services to external customers outside of the group. |
| (4) | This graphic is non-exhaustive and excludes packages in Rest of Africa that are bespoke for specific markets (e.g DStv Meda Sport in Ethiopia, DStv Stream Mobile in Mauritius etc). |
Existing and new products and services enhance our value proposition to customers in the home, including:
| (1) | Certain markets have package structures and package names tailored for in-market preferences, (e.g., Nigeria, Angola and Tanzania) and therefore differ slightly from our typical package tiering. Rest of Africa pricing in US dollars varies by market due to exchange rates and in-market pricing dynamics – averages for core markets excluding Portuguese markets shown. |
| (2) | Measured across South Africa and 11 core markets in Rest of Africa. |
| (3) | Measured across eight GOtv markets in Rest of Africa GOtv and excludes South Africa which has a small subscriber base serviced through the Sentech network. |
FY25 updates:
FY25 updates:
FY25 update:
FY25 updates:
FY25 updates:
FY25 updates:
| (1) | Increase driven by cost savings initiatives to protect the bottom line, a more stable foreign exchange rate environment in the second half of FY2025, and the accounting gain generated in FY2025 on the successful conclusion of the sale of a 60% majority interest in the NMSIS business. |
| (2) | Relates to active subscribers. |
| (3) | Includes non-cash advertising contributions of ZAR101m in FY25 (FY24: ZAR61m). |
We manage our capitals to create and sustain long-term value for our stakeholders. In the short term, it is not always possible for all capitals (or the stakeholders who provide them) to benefit equally, and some capitals may benefit at the temporary expense of others. When deciding how best to create, preserve or manage the erosion of value in a given area, we are often required to make trade-offs between capitals and stakeholders, and between short and long-term horizons.
We typically aim to deliver positive operating leverage (i.e., organic growth in costs below organic growth revenues) through cost savings and operating efficiencies.
The ZAR3.7bn (FY24: ZAR1.9bn) in cost savings delivered this year: protected our financial capital by limiting negative organic operating leverage to -1.62% (FY24: generating positive organic leverage of 4.26%), but required a trade-off as some of our suppliers were impacted by these difficult decisions.
Ongoing economic pressure in South Africa and a number of key Rest of Africa markets, compounded by issues such as power challenges and imported food and fuel inflation have negatively affected customer activity and revenue generation, which inhibits our ability to recover costs.
In the operating environment of FY25 where growth has been constrained by the macro-economic environment, we continued with our decision to materially reduce our set-top box subsidy spend to protect margins and cash flows, with a trade-off of lower incremental subscriber growth.
Pricing decisions create a trade-off between customer relationships and financial capital.
We need to accommodate cost increases and reinvestment in our business, while also considering shifts in consumer spending and affordability. We achieve a balance by closely controlling costs and investment spend, and by making research-based pricing decisions which factor in price elasticities, consumer price inflation, exchange rate movements, etc.
We aim for price increases at or slightly below inflation, but seek to accommodate specific in-market dynamics, (e.g. pressure on discretionary consumer spending and affordability) as required.
Where we experience high inflation in certain markets, we do consider adjusting the timing and/or cadence of price increases in order to ensure that our revenues do not decline dramatically in real terms. In FY25, we had to carefully manage pricing decisions across several of our Rest of Africa markets given weakening currencies and high inflation rates.
In an increasingly connected world, global content giants are offering broad video entertainment options at lower cost-per-service to consumers via direct-to-consumer streaming. Our traditional linear Pay-TV business model is negatively impacted by this trend and to ensure the business is well positioned for the future we need to make trade-offs between financial capital, customer relationships, and supplier relationships.
In content, we are:
In terms of distribution, we are:
We take pride in having organically scaled our core video entertainment business since inception in 1985 to an active base of 14.5m in 2025 across South Africa and Rest of Africa.
It is this well-established base that has become the foundation of organic growth in the group through the evolution of a diverse range of value-added products and services (e.g. DStv Insurance, DStv Internet etc.) being offered to our customers.
While it would be ideal to maintain 100% of this growth, we acknowledge that we are not experts in all of these fields and it would be more beneficial to partner with experts in these areas.
It is with this in mind that we have partnered with KingMakers and Moment, and in FY25 concluded the transaction to sell 60% of the NMSIS business to Sanlam.
The group retains 40% ownership in NMSIS, we received an upfront cash consideration of ZAR1.2bn with a potential performance based cash earn-out, of up to a maximum additional consideration of ZAR1.5bn. We believe that with our partner in Sanlam, we will be able to make a step change in growth, by expanding our insurance and related financial service offerings into MultiChoice's extensive subscriber base on the African continent and will have 40% of a much larger business.
We lease our satellite transponder capacity to defray upfront capital costs and although we treat these lease payments as equivalent to an operating cost, lenders include our finance leases in our debt covenant calculations.
We are using new compression technology to reduce the number of transponders required to offer our services, with the consequence being lower revenue for our satellite providers when these contracts are renewed.
We use financial gearing to optimise our capital structure and fund targeted investment in attractive growth opportunities aimed at enhancing long-term shareholder returns. In this regard, we fully drew down our ZAR12bn term loan facility in FY24.
We are also cognisant of the risk that accompanies having elevated debt levels, especially in an environment of elevated interest rate levels, and in discussion with our banking partners, repaid ZAR0.9bn of capital outstanding on our term loan.
We have heightened financial and operational risk at a time when we are in the process of returning our Rest of Africa business to sustainable cash flow generation and building out our nascent Showmax business.
Our shareholders have varying priorities in terms of returns, with some expressing a desire for steady or progressive dividend payments, while others are supportive of reinvestment into existing and new business opportunities to drive future growth. Dividend payments therefore require trade-offs:
