In South Africa, e-TV owner eMedia has declared in its annual financial results that it secured a five-year extension with MultiChoice to carry its news programme, eNCA, on DStv.
According to the broadcaster, it sold MultiChoice the exclusive rights to carry its flagship news channel, blocking its platforms like Openview from carrying it.
eMedia also disclosed that MultiChoice is now paying a lower licence fee for the channel.
“The Group’s revenue for the fiscal of US$156 million is only US$1 million less than the previous year despite the under-pressure television advertising cake and a reduction in the eNCA licence fee received from MultiChoice,” eMedia stated.
“This was underscored by television advertising revenue ending on US$106 million and an increase of 48% on the property and facility income driven mainly by the recovery of Media Film Services.”
According to eMedia, it kept its 34.5% share of the prime-time audience market across E-tv, Openview, and eNCA, up marginally from 34.1% in March 2022.
E-tv’s prime-time market share dropped to 21.4% after increasing from 21.8% in 2021 to 23.7% last year.
eNCA is the most-watched news channel in South Africa among the nation’s wealthiest demographic and the second most-watched news channel among “All Adults”, the broadcasters note.
eMedia said this is despite the channel not being offered on all DStv packages, whereas its competition is. “There has been a significant change in average minute ratings since the [Covid–19] pandemic and also due to load-shedding.”
According to eMedia, the profitability of the company should be evaluated in light of the ongoing load shedding and its effects on the “advertising cake,” the foreign exchange rate, and the business’s use of diesel fuel.
