African foremost entertainment industry, MultiChoice, owners of DStv, Showmax, Mnet, and Mzansi Magic, is planning to produce 52 local movies in the next financial year, and increase its overall local offering.
In financial results published recently, Multichoice said it plans to increase its general entertainment spend on local content to 45% by 2022, up from 40% this year.
Aside from the local films, it also plans to produce 29 local dramas within the next 12 months.
Multichoice said its Showmax and DStv Now user numbers had double the past financial year, so that those services combined are now considerably bigger than Netflix in SA; even though it did not disclose hard numbers.
“ it’s streaming platforms Showmax and DSTV recorded double of its users of previous years and are considerably bigger than Netflix in South Africa”.
DStv Now and Showmax are free services offered to all top-tier DStv subscribers, while Netflix requires paid subscriptions.
In a statement by the Chief Executive Officer, MultiChoice, Calvo Mawela, he said; “Our growth is exceptionally pleasing, especially in the current economic climate, and a clear indication that our strategy is working”.
In a report by Netwerk24, it gathered that; Multichoice said Showmax will likely increase its sports offering in an apparent attempt to differentiate it from Netflix.
Overall, Multichoice, which listed separately from its parent company Naspers in February, posted a profit of R7 billion on revenue of R50.1 billion.
In South Africa, it saw subscriber growth of 8%, or 500,000, to 7.4 million. Premier subscribers, however, declined by 7%, or 100,000, to 1.5 million.
Similarly, in the rest of Africa, subscribers grew by 17%, or 1.1 million, to 7.7 million. This happens to be the first time subscribers outside of Douth Africa outnumber those in South Africa.
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