Reports from South Africa say that pirate streaming services like 123Movies and Fmovies not only steal revenue from local broadcasters such as MultiChoice but also significantly impact the creative industry as a whole. Moreover, the fines for pirates found guilty are miniscule. The pirate services depend on advertising for their income stream. This inevitably appeals […]

eMedia Holdings and South Africa pay-TV giant MultiChoice are again at each other’s throats. The two are due to appeal at a Competition Tribunal in South Africa today [January 18th]. The battle is over TV sports rights with eMedia alleging that MultiChoice is abusing its dominant position and dictating the terms for access to premium […]

MultiChoice and its DStv pay-TV operation has secured access to the African Cup (AFCON). The football tournament kicks off in the Cote- d’Ivoire on January 13th, and now viewers in Nigeria and other African countries can view the coverage as part of their DStv subscriptions. MultiChoice said it had reached “a commercially viable agreement” with […]

Nigerian consumers are unhappy with the fourth price rise this year from Multichoice and its DStv and GOtv pay-TV services. One quote published in Nigerian local press from the ConsumerConnect watchdog states that MultiChoice is “taking Nigerians for granted”. MultiChoice has announced increases in the costs of its products May, August and early November 2023 […]

SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster – currently in serious debt – has hired Nomsa Chabeli, the former General Manager of telco MTN as its new CEO. Chabeli was also previously marketing director of MultiChoice’s SuperSport and DStv divisions. SABC stated: “[Chabeli] also has a credible history of developing persuasive and highly influential brand messaging that […]

MultiChoice, operator of the DStv pay-TV system, has lost almost 500,000 subscribers in South Africa. The latest interim financial results show that the loss at the end of September placed the operator’s total subscriber numbers (90-day active) at 8.629 million, or 486,000 less than the 9.115 million at the same point last year. MultiChoice says […]

MultiChoice has raised subscription rates by 19 per cent for viewers in Nigeria. The rise is put down by local CEO John Ugbe as the cost of business operations and “the current economic challenges in Nigeria,” which include high inflation and a weak Naira. The price hikes have understandably not gone down well with subscribers. […]

MultiChoice reports it has closed down a video pirate in Krugersdorp, a city north-west of Johannesburg, South Africa. Irdeto provides the protection for MultiChoice systems. The pirate, Pieter Lombard, was convicted for his role in facilitating unauthorised access to copyrighted content. Lombard was arrested on November 12th 2020 in Monument Park, Krugersdorp, with 12 illegal […]

South African free-to-air broadcaster eMedia recently lost its court argument with pay-TV broadcaster MultiChoice over TV rights to the Rugby World Cup. eMedia’s legal application was struck out by the Johannesburg High Court. Lawyers for eMedia have now taken their complaint to the country’s Competition authorities. eMedia says that it had filed papers with the […]

The legal application by South Africa’s eMedia Holdings against MultiChoice and arguing for access to TV coverage of the Rugby World Cup was thrown out by the Johannesburg High Court on October 10th. Technically, the legal move was “struck out” and not heard by the court which upset eMedia’s lawyers. The judge in the case […]