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- Revenue up 4% to R53.338 billion (2020: R51.387 billion)<\/li>\n
- Operating profit up 27% to R10.458 billion (2020: R8.267 billion)<\/li>\n
- Profit before tax up 68% to R8.904 billion (2020: R5.314 billion)<\/li>\n
- Profit for the year up 118% to R4.077 billion (2020: R1.87 billion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Mulitchoice added 1.363 million new 90-day-active subscribers over the year, taking its total to 20.86 million in 2021. Of these new additions, 515,000 were in South Africa, and 848,000 were under Rest of Africa.<\/p>\n
Blended average revenue per user (ARPU) was R185, with South African ARPU at R277 vs R115 for the Rest of Africa.<\/p>\n
The group said that its growth in subscribers and revenue can be attributed to heightened consumer demand for video entertainment services and continued penetration of the mass market.<\/p>\n
While the company did benefit from increased demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its operations were still negatively affected – particularly the impact of lockdown on production,\u00a0 advertising, and the wider economic strain on commercial subscribers.<\/p>\n
“The impact of Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns saw consumers prioritise video services, but a lack of live sport, combined with the inability of commercial subscribers to trade, negatively impacted revenue generation, especially early in the financial year,” it said.<\/p>\n
“Both advertising and commercial subscription revenues were significantly impacted by Covid-19. Advertising revenues were down 34% YoY (R600 million) at the interim stage, but with less lockdown intensity in the second half and the return of live sport, it recovered well, ending 11% down YoY at R2.8 billion.<\/p>\n
“Similarly, commercial subscription revenues started to recover in the latter part of the financial year. At the interim stage it was down 46% but finished the year 35% lower than the prior year. The hospitality industry remains intermittent in its recovery due to lockdowns and is expected to take some time to normalise,” it said.<\/p>\n
Revenue in South Africa was relatively flat, growing at a mere 1% to R34.3 billion.<\/p>\n
Revenue growth was supported by healthy subscriber growth in the middle and mass market, and the uplift from annual price increases – but this was negated by a lower average Premium subscriber base, it said.<\/p>\n
Lower Premium subscriber numbers are mainly attributed to the lack of live sport for part of the financial year, Multichoice said.<\/p>\n
Premium subscribers declined by 8% over the year, dropping to 1.4 million 90-day-actrive subscribers, down from 1.5 million in 2020.<\/p>\n
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