MultiChoice - No price increase
MultiChoice Africa Limited, a subsidiary of Naspers Limited that offers video entertainment services in Africa outside South Africa, announced that there will be no price increase for subscribers to its DStv service (direct-to-home satellite television service) in the majority of its African markets. Price increases usually occur annually around 1 April.
Most African markets have suffered as a result of commodity and oil price weakness, and because of the significant devaluation of local currencies. Many of MultiChoice Africa’s costs are incurred in dollars, which forced it to pass through price increases in 2015. Nevertheless, MultiChoice Africa continues to suffer adverse impacts from the economic environment.
Since subscribers are still under severe financial pressure, MultiChoice Africa has decided not to increase subscription prices for DStv in most of its markets in 2016.
Imtiaz Patel CEO of Naspers’s Video entertainment segment said. “We believe MultiChoice Africa is correctly responding to prevailing market conditions. Barring any further external economic shocks, we do not anticipate a price increase in 2016."
“As a group, we believe in the longer term potential of our markets in Africa. We will therefore provide the necessary financial support to MultiChoice Africa. We are in a position to do this because most of the Naspers group business (65% of revenue) is outside Africa, where times are better and our businesses are in good shape.” said Naspers CEO, Bob Van Dijk.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
About Naspers:
Founded in 1915, Naspers is a broad-based multinational internet and media group offering services in more than 130 countries. Its principal operations are in ecommerce (i.e. classifieds, online retail, marketplaces, online comparison shopping, payments and online services), video-entertainment and print media. The group also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE: MAIL). Naspers is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (NPN.SJ) and has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: NPSN).
For more information, please visit www.naspers.com.
About MultiChoice Africa Limited:
MultiChoice Africa Limited (“MultiChoice Africa”) is the leading video entertainment service provider in sub-Saharan Africa, having launched the first digital satellite service in the 1980s. MultiChoice Africa provides multi-channel, multi-platform digital video entertainment services containing channels from Africa, America, China, India, Asia and Europe. The company has over twenty years’ experience as a video entertainment provider in Africa, offering cutting-edge digital technology to provide premium video content for subscribers in 49 Sub-Saharan African countries and its adjacent Indian Ocean islands. MultiChoice Africa provides its digital satellite television service – DStv - to subscribers’ homes from two different satellites, namely: the Intelsat 20 (“IS 20”) Ku BAND and Eutelsat 36B (used to be called W7) Ku Band. For more about MultiChoice Africa, please visit www.dstv.com.
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