South African-based pay-TV operator, MultiChoice Group has released its full-year 2022 results which show that Nigeria leads the Rest of Africa (RoA) in the percentage of subscription revenue and year-over-year subscription growth.
Despite high inflation, fuel shortages, and frequent electricity blackouts, Nigeria was still able to lead in the MultiChoice Group’s full-year 2022 results.
According to a report, when compared to other African countries with MultiChoice presence such as Kenya, Zambia, and Angola, Nigeria ranked first with year-over-year 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 commence tax audits.
However, the popularity of local content like Big Brother Naija also had a massive impact on the performance of the RoA operations.
Meanwhile, 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.
Speaking on the result, 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 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 loss.
Core headline earnings, which measures the board’s sustainable business performance, were up by 6 per cent at $237.1 million.