MultiChoice will carry losses incurred by Showmax in the “medium term”, but the goal is eventually for the streaming television service to turn a profit once broadband infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent has been built out further to support it.
That’s the word from Calvo Mawela, CEO of MultiChoice Group, which will list on the JSE on 27 February.
Originally launched as a separate business under Naspers, Showmax was integrated into MultiChoice in 2017, with Showmax’s Polish operations (not part of the integration) subsequently being closed down. Naspers now intends to unbundle its entire controlling stake in MultiChoice to shareholders shortly after the listing.
Speaking to TechCentral on Tuesday, Mawela said MultiChoice is “very comfortable” with Showmax’s performance to date. “We have a very good research team that compares us to other (over-the-top) offerings in the market,” he said. “So far, we think we are competing well with our peers.”
However, MultiChoice is looking to improve the Showmax offering, starting with developing more original local content. Following the success of
Tali’s Wedding Diary, it will soon debut its second original series,
The Girl from St Agnes, on 31 January (watch the trailer below).
“We will continue to invest in original programming to improve Showmax’s performance,” Mawela sa...
https://techcentral.co.za/multichoice-will-continue-to-carry-showmax-losses/86773/
