DStv Faces Dire Times as Full-Blown Assault from Global Streaming Providers Gain Momentum

According to experts, the Pay TV industry in Africa is now facing a full-blown assault from streaming services, and MultiChoice – the most prominent Pay TV provider on the continent – seems to have no coherent strategy to replace the billions it makes from satellite subscriptions.

For example, Bob Iger, executive chairman and former CEO of Walt Disney, traditional TV in all its forms – broadcast, cable, and satellite — is marching to a distinct precipice. He noted that streaming TV is gaining viewers and that Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+ will continue to grow in the years to come.

Experts note that although South Africa may be behind other countries in streaming adoption, MultiChoice is not immune to the global cord-cutting trend.

According to media reports, MultiChoice started to experience a decline in DStv Premium subscribers seven years ago. Between 2015 and 2018, DStv Premium subscriptions declined from 2.35 million to 1.92 million.

In 2018, MultiChoice changed its reporting standards, but the trend of high-end DStv subscribers dumping the service continued. It is worth noting that between 2018 and 2022, DStv premium subscribers declined from 1.7 million to 1.4 million.

In its latest financial results, the pay-tv operator revealed a 6 per cent decline in mid-market compact and commercial packages, which has not happened before.
Industry experts note that the trend of people dumping their DStv subscriptions is now moving down the value chain, which should be of great concern to MultiChoice.

In addition, more South Africans are accessing fast, affordable, uncapped broadband. As a result, more streaming products are becoming available in the country, and households must pick between them based on affordability.

According to media reports, Vumatel, Open serve, and other fibre network operators are aggressively rolling out fibre across South Africa and targeting mid and low-income households.

Mobile network operators are also offering affordable uncapped 4G and 5G data packages to people who cannot access fibre. Therefore, the number of South African households with broadband access to support streaming is rapidly increasing.

These households can now replace their expensive DStv service with affordable streaming options, like Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+.

To compound MultiChoice’s problems, Amazon is expected to launch its marketplace in South Africa in February 2023, with Amazon’s Prime membership programme following shortly afterwards.

Amazon Prime includes Prime Video with unlimited access to an extensive catalogue of movies, TV series, and documentaries.

QUESTION ONE (30 Marks)
1.1 The extract clearly highlights the challenges MultiChoice is currently experiencing, based on the examples in the extract as a guideline, conduct a SWOT analysis of the organisation Multichoice, and explain how each element of the SWOT analysis aims to overcome the challenges faced by Multichoice.
Your SWOT analysis should include:
• An analysis of each element in the SWOT acronym

Answers to Above Questions on DStv Case Study

Answer 1: SWOT analysis stands for strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. An analysis of Multichoice using the SWOT analytical tool indicates that Multichoice has a significant position in the African Pay Tv industry and this is its most significant strength. It offers choices to its customers in the form of diversified content, and it has significant brand recognition within its loyal customer base.