{"id":472513,"date":"2022-12-04T06:59:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T04:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=472513"},"modified":"2022-12-04T06:59:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T04:59:36","slug":"dstvs-streaming-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/investing\/472513-dstvs-streaming-secret.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv’s streaming secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

MultiChoice is talking up the prospects of DStv streaming and Showmax, but ask the company about subscriber numbers, and answers become hard to find.<\/p>\n

DStv\u2019s over-the-top (OTT) platforms, which are its answer to competition from Netflix and Disney+, include users on the DStv app and Showmax.<\/p>\n

In its latest financial results, MultiChoice said Connected Video continues to grow as broadband penetration improves and online consumption increases.<\/p>\n

The year-on-year growth rate for paying Showmax subscribers was a strong 50%, while the overall online user base increased by 13%.<\/p>\n

Showmax Pro, MultiChoice\u2019s standalone OTT sports product, also enjoyed strong growth on the back of broadcasting the English Premier League and UEFA championships.<\/p>\n

The growth in online subscribers sounds promising, but the big question among investors is how much DStv streaming and Showmax contribute to the bottom line.<\/p>\n

It is also unclear how many Showmax and ShowMax Pro subscribers there are and how many people have signed up for DStv\u2019s streaming services.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kennedy-Good, an executive director at J.P. Morgan, highlighted that a lack of information about Connected Video makes it difficult to assess the impact on the business.<\/p>\n

He asked MultiChoice executives what contribution Connected Video makes to subscription revenues and the growth rate inside the revenue base.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice CFO Tim Jacobs was not willing to provide information on their Connected Video revenue and subscriber numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have made a decision to be very cagey about what information they share as it is competitive and price sensitive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The decision was based on the competitive landscape of video streaming services and the fact that they do not get much information from other participants in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, therefore, don\u2019t disclose the contribution Connected Video makes to topline revenue or subscriber numbers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One analyst told Daily Investor they are sceptical of Jacobs\u2019 explanation and that MultiChoice most likely keeps the numbers secret to hide the small size of their streaming platform.<\/p>\n

Another stakeholder said Showmax might still be loss-making. If this is the case, it is not clear what the path to profitability is.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>

Tim Jacobs, MultiChoice Group CFO<\/p><\/div>\n

Showmax versus Netflix<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Without official Showmax subscriber numbers, it is difficult to see how it performs against competing platforms like Netflix.<\/p>\n

At this stage, the best option is to use services like Google Trends and Similarweb to compare audiences.<\/p>\n

Google Trends reveals three times more searches in South Africa for Netflix than for Showmax.<\/p>\n

Similarweb\u2019s latest data shows that Netflix is the seventh most popular website in South Africa, higher than DStv, 10th, and Showmax, 37th.<\/p>\n

The chart below shows the search traffic for\u00a0Netflix<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Showmax<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0over the last five years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

This article was first published by Daily Investor<\/a><\/strong> and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0DStv Streama gets Disney+<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MultiChoice gets cagey when you ask it about streaming subscriber numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341108,"featured_media":187127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80335],"tags":[85,35,83079,475,59046,32140],"class_list":["post-472513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-dstv","tag-headline","tag-jonathan-kennedy-good","tag-multichoice","tag-multichoice-connected-video","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}