Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business

#35: MultiChoice - How the South African Pay TV pioneer became the largest entertainment provider across Africa

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Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about MultiChoice - The African video entertainment provider. We’ll explore the MultiChoice story across 5 areas:

  1. South African video entertainment market context
  2. MultiChoice's launch & growth over time
  3. MultiChoice's product & monetization strategy
  4. Competition, primary & emerging businesses
  5. Overall outlook

    6. This episode was recorded on August 15, 2021

    Companies discussed: MultiChoice (M-Net), Naspers, MTN, ShowMax, BetKing, Comcast, Sky, DSTV, MTN, Iroko TV, HiTV, StarTimes, Vivendi Canal+, ROK Media, English Premier League, Netflix, HBO Max, ShowMax, Showtime & BBC

    Business concepts discussed: Pan-African expansion strategy, Entertainment content acquisition strategy, subscription & hardware monetization strategy


    Conversation highlights:

    • (02:20) - Why we’re talking about MultiChoice
    • (06:50) - South African TV context
    • (15:28) - Origin and early history of MultiChoice
    • (26:10) - Product & monetization strategy
    • (34:05) - MultiChoice device / decoder strategy
    • (38:20) - Content, Partnerships & M&A
    • (42:30) - MultiChoice Financials and key metrics
    • (46:54) - Competition across different business lines
    • (51:40) - Non-core businesses and investments, BetKing
    • (1:05:00) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
    • (1:12:02) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
    • (1:26:28) - Recommendations and small wins


      • Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

      • Recommendation: Die with Zero (Bill Perkins)
      • Small wins: Night out with SF friends & Sailing with friends in Sausalito


        • Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

        • Recommendation: Omah Lay - Understand & Robert Smith of Vista Equity on Money Maze Podcast
        • Small wins: Attended a wedding last weekend, Happy Married Life Dami! + Chelsea FC Winnning!
        • Other content mentioned: South Africa as TV’s last frontier


          • Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] with your feedback!

          Founders: We'd love to hear about you & what you're working on, email us at [email protected]

          Investors: We'd also love to link up with you, to partner to drive the ecosystem forward. Contact us at [email protected]


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          Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessBy Olumide Ogunsanwo and Bankole Makanju
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