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As FX Headwinds, Subscription Fee Issues Take Toll on Multichoice Results as published by Thisday Newspaper
The latest performance report of Multichoice, where it posted losses for the second time may be an eye opener that the company at the centre of a storm in Nigeria over the controversial review of subscription fees is indeed under serious pressure caused by the crisis in the foreign exchange market and other operating challenges, writes Festus Akanbi
For Multichoice, Africa’s leading entertainment company, this is certainly not a time to cheer. This is because its latest financial results have shown that contrary to popular belief, the company is not making enormous profits from its DStv satellite television service. The performance result which was in red confirmed that while the satellite television service contributes significantly to Multichoice’s revenue, the truth is that the company is not solely reliant on it.
MultiChoice reported loss-making for the year ended 31 March 2024 after incurring a net loss of 4.1 billion rand ($225.8 million at current exchange rate). The company recorded a loss for the second year running, its audited accounts released on Wednesday showed.
According to the company, the substantial net foreign exchange translation losses resulted from losses on, “USD-denominated non-quasi equity loans between MultiChoice Africa Holdings B.V. and MultiChoice Nigeria Limited.”
This, it added, “follows the depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar from a closing rate of N464.50 in FY23 to N1 308.00 in FY24.”
According to the income statement, revenue dropped 5.9 per cent to 55 billion rands due to a slide in subscription fees.
“The combination of foreign exchange headwinds and a lower subscriber base resulted in a net decline in group revenues of five per cent to ZAR56.0 billion,” MultiChoice said.
Counting the Gains of Diversification
The report showed that general and administrative expenses jumped to 18.4 billion rands from 16.6 billion rands a year earlier after surges in employee costs and software license expenses, weakening operating profit.
The report showed however that Multichoice’s diversification strategy has led to significant growth in other segments, such as Showmax, SuperSportBet, and Moment. These new revenue streams have contributed to the company’s overall performance, offsetting some of the challenges faced by DStv.
According to the financial results, several of the company’s other products and services also performed well. Showmax, in particular, has shown impressive growth, with a successful relaunch across 44 markets in sub-Saharan Africa and a significant increase in active users.
Highlighting the company’s achievements in the face of adversity, Multichoice Group Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Calvo Mawela, said despite a tough year, the company delivered a trading profit margin of 26 per cent in South Africa and a 48 per cent increase in trading profit in Africa.
“We’ve just published our results for the past financial year, which ended in March 2024. The year has been like no other in terms of economic turmoil, but we showed resilience and navigated significant headwinds – managing our business with focus, dedication, and tenacity,” said Mawela.
Emphasis on Efficiency
He added that the company’s financial results were a testament to its ability to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing market, noting that the emphasis on efficiency has positioned the company for future growth, despite the challenges faced by its satellite television service.
“KingMakers delivered strong growth in the online business in Nigeria by growing monthly active online users by 37 per cent and online gross gaming revenues by 26 per cent, year-on-year in constant currency. The business launched BetKing Casino and a virtual football sportsbook service, BetKing FootballGO, in Nigeria and SuperSportBet in South Africa”, the CEO stated.
He continued: “SuperSport continues to bring fans the best of sports from across the globe. In the past year, we broadcast over 34,000 action-packed sports events, more live sports than any other broadcaster in the world. Highlights of the year were the Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, Netball World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup, and AFCON.
“Also, SuperSport Schools continues to grow strongly and more than doubled its registered user base during the year. Showcasing South Africa’s talent of the future, the platform displayed 49,000 hours of live programming across 43 different sports, covering 1,100 schools and 14,500 teams.”
Mawela emphasised the company’s commitment to creating authentic African stories. “We are the largest producer of original content on the African continent and remain committed to creating and growing authentic African stories. We produced over 6,500 hours of local content, to bring our local content library to 84,000 hours of content. More than half of our general entertainment budget is spent on local content.”
Commitment to Innovation
With a cost savings target of ZAR2 billion (108.9 million) set for the upcoming year, the company is poised to continue its trajectory of growth and innovation.
“We know that nobody else has the content we have for the customers we serve. This puts us in a great position to prosper – by better understanding our customers’ entertainment choices, identifying their needs, and tapping into the growth opportunities that arise along the way.
“In the year ahead, our focus will be to drive scale in Showmax, Moment, and SuperSportBet and to grow DStv Insurance, DStv Internet, and DStv Stream. We are purposefully pursuing our vision of becoming Africa’s entertainment platform of choice with determination and vigour. Significant progress has been made towards achieving this strategic objective. Our combined efforts will put our business in a strong position to prosper once the macro-economic environment stabilises,” the Multichoice boss assured
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Botswana Election: Shocking Fulfilment Of Primate Ayodele’s Prophecy (VIDEO)
The outcome of the just concluded election in Botswana that saw the ruling party lose power after 58 years is a testament to Primate Ayodele’s prophetic credibility.Voters in Botswana have delivered a shock defeat to the party that has ruled them for nearly six decades by handing victory to an opposition coalition and its presidential candidate Duma Boko.The 54-year-old of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) will replace President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who on Friday conceded defeat after his Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) lost by a landslide for the first time in 58 years.Primate Ayodele had on several occasions long before this election held that the incumbent president would be disappointed at the election polls. He made it known that the outcome of the election would be shocking and disappointing to the ruling party.These were his words:‘’In Botswana, the president will make every effort and the country will want to move on to a stage but the president must be careful so he won’t be disappointed. In the coming election, the president will be disappointed, people will not want to vote him.’’https://www.tiktok.com/@primateayodele/video/7432163411875679493Primate Ayodele made this video in September 2023 regarding the nation of Botswana when there was nothing that looked like the incumbent president was going to lose the election in the physical realm but the prophet, as usual, spoke based on divine signals received from God and it’s surprising that the prophecy came to pass in this manner.For a party to rule for 58 years, it is almost impossible to take power from such a party and this is what makes the prophecy of Primate Ayodele unique.If the president had listened to Primate Ayodele, maybe he would have tried to work on some of the things that later made him lose the election but as usual of politicians, they ignore prophetic warnings and regret later when they happen.It would also be recalled that in October 2023, Primate Ayodele warned the incumbent president to be careful so that he wouldn’twas shoot himself in the leg and face betrayal in the election that held yesterday.These were his words‘’The incumbent president of Botswana must pray for good health and God’s divine help. The country should pray against disease outbreaks and the prevention of border crises. The president will have a tough time because he will shoot himself with an unpopular policy. I see their currency becoming weaker. Investors will dump the country. They need to be careful of external attack, the president will be betrayed.’’https://independent.ng/primate-ayodele-releases-prophecies-on-elections-in-namibia-botswana-rwanda-others/Sadly, some of the president’s policies led to his loss, as Primate Ayodele warned him.
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Primate Ayodele’s Prophecy On Globacom Fulfilled
For the first time since Globacom began in 2003, Mike Adenuga, the founder, would be stepping down as the Chief Executive Officer for someone else to take over.According to confirmed reports, the Indigenous telecommunication giant has appointed Ahmad Farroukh as its new CEO.This is part of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ‘s efforts to strengthen corporate governance in the telecoms industry. People close to the matter noted that there has been a considerable shift in how the telco now relates to the regulator as it takes steps to strengthen its internal processes.The telco is expected to make an official announcement soon and has notified the NCC. According to a report by TechCabal, the telco’s new CEO will be Ahmad Farroukh, a former CEO of MTN Nigeria.This unprecedented development is a fulfilment of the prophecy of Nigerian prophet, Primate Ayodele which he shared regarding the telecommunication company earlier in September.Primate Ayodele had in a video mentioned that he foresees that Globacom and Airtel would change their Chief executive officers. While Airtel’s prophecy may be seen as normal because the company has had to change CEOs in the past, Ayodele’s prophecy remains a mystery now that it has been fulfilled because this has never happened before.It’s however not a surprise that Primate Ayodele’s mysterious prophecy on Glo has just been fulfilled because he has a record of foretelling ‘abnormal’ events that end up coming to pass.In the same video, Primate Ayodele stated that the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) will come up with policies that will affect telcos and lead them to make some decisions. No doubt, the sudden change of Mike Adenuga as Glo’s CEO is also a fulfillment of that aspect of the prophecy.These were his words‘’ Two of these telecommunication CEO will be changed; Airtel and Globacom.’’https://www.tiktok.com/@primateayodele/video/7431727212644044038 Meanwhile, Primate Ayodele has shared several prophecies for the telecommunication sector most especially Globacom. The new development is just a fulfilment of one of them while we await the fulfilment of others.
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Primate Ayodele VS Osun APC: Oyetola, They Are Leading You To The Pit Again
By Adeosun Olashile
There is a popular saying; ‘’What an elder sees sitting down, a child will not see it even if he stands on an Iroko tree” was indeed coined for a season like this when political actors have begun to thrash prophecies and insist on doing things their own way.Primate Ayodele, a renowned prophet and the Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church had warned the Osun state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) sometime last week to work with former governor, Rauf Aregbesola if they want to win the governorship election of 2026.Primate Ayodele told the party which is planning to field the immediate past governor, Gboyega Oyetola as a candidate that there will be no victory for them if Aregbesola isn’t in the system. He prophetically advised the party to include the former governor if indeed they want to win.However, in response to the prophet’s prophecy, Osun APC issued a statement yesterday rejecting the prophecy and describing Primate Ayodele as a false prophet. The party referred to the role Aregbesola played in the loss of Oyetola’s second term bid in 2022 while declaring that they will never work with the former governor again. The party expressed confidence in other stakeholders, making it known that they would win the election without the help of Rauf Aregbesola.These were the party’s words:“We reject the Primate Ayodele’s fallacious prophecy which we consider to be in the realm of a figment of the imagination of the suspected mercantile prophet of which its prediction is aimed at causing unnecessary tension and friction within our party in Osun State.“We would like to impress it on Prophet Ayodele and his discreet sponsors that our party which has been working assiduously round the clock to achieve victory in the said elections would continue to work for its victory without the enlistment of any metaphorical serpents who have become political pariahs and men of yesterday in the corridor of political power in the state because of their evil deeds unleashed on the party in the past.”Citing Ayodele’s past ‘’incorrect predictions’’ as grounds for dismissal, Olabisi pointed out, “This is the same prophet who falsely predicted former President Goodluck Jonathan’s continued rule till 2019 and claimed that Atiku Abubakar would win the 2023 presidential election.To start with, it would be a total waste of time to talk about the prophecies the APC spokesperson claimed didn’t come to pass. This simply shows sheer ignorance and illiteracy on the part of the party’s spokesperson because if a grownup finds it difficult to understand simple English and decides to misinterpret prophecies, it’s the beginning of failure for APC.Come to think of it, it appears APC members have an axe to grind with Primate Ayodele because they are always the ones releasing statements to counter prophecies, they are always cooking up lies to discredit Primate Ayodele whenever he talks about them. This could be because of Primate Ayodele’s prophecies about Tinubu’s administration before he even won the election. The prophet had said Nigerians would cry and things would become more difficult. Now that all of that has come to pass, maybe they are just angry at Primate Ayodele for the accuracy of his prophecy, who knows?Anyways, back to Osun State APC, I don’t have so much to say to them other than advise that they should be humble before the prophecy of Primate Ayodele. I see they talked about sponsors, it’s laughable because even Aregbesola was not favoured by Primate Ayodele’s prophecy at some point so what are they even trying to cook up? Well, that’s what illiterates do.As I earlier noted that what an elder sees while seeing down, a child will not be able to see even if he climbs an iroko tree; Primate Ayodele is first a prophet who sees beyond the present and he has dug deeply into the spiritual realm and saw the danger that lies ahead of APC members in 2026. By doing them good, he shared for them to hear so they can make moves, give it all it takes so they can win in 2026 but sadly, they failed to do the right thing.Let me remind Osun APC that this was the same thing Oyetola did that made him lose the election in 2022. Primate Ayodele in his prophecy book titled Warnings To The Nations (2021 edition) warned Oyetola who was a governor to put his house in order to avoid losing the election. He called on him again in his 2022 prophecies to unite his foot soldiers to consolidate his victory but he never listened.These were his words‘’OSUN STATE: The spirit of God says Governor Oyetola must unite all members of the Osun State House of Assembly as well as the party members. He must work assiduously because there will be a lot of evil perpetrators who will want to frustrate his effort in order for him not to win the second term. All the Who is who should do reconciled in the Osun State APC.’’‘’ I foresee that many of his party members will want to gang up against him. Oyetola must not allow the party members to decamp and also not allow his party to break. He needs prayers to avert negativity and do the needful. They will bring negative reports about the governor. He must pray very hard so that he will succeed. Oyetola will want to change everything about his present seat. It will cause more problems, but if he puts in more efforts and pray very well, he will retain his seat. Oyetola will want to do all he can to retain his seat for the second term. He will want to ensure that the APC excel in the coming election. He should pray not to lose any of his Aides and loyal party members. There will be protest against his government and also negative propaganda. If he puts his house in order, he is going to record victory.’’Just imagine Gboyega Oyetola who disgracefully lost the election had listened to this prophecy by Primate Ayodele and worked towards it, would he have lost the election? Certainly not but obstinacy, negligence, and disobedience led to his loss and I strongly believe that his party members were part of those that told him not to listen to divine Instructions.One thing they should know is Primate Ayodele is less concerned about Oyetola’s victory or loss; whether he wins or loses, it cannot have any direct effect on the prophet. Oyetola and his followers are those who would cry and suffer for another four years.This response by the APC in Osun state isn’t a new thing, several politicians have tackled Primate Ayodele for prophesying against them but now, they are all regretting their actions because what they were warned against came to pass. The likes of Andy Uba, Ize Iyamu, former president Goodluck Jonathan, former Gabon president Ali Bongo, former Liberia president George Weah, and Donald Trump, to mention but a few.I only pity Oyetola more because if he allows the party to mislead him again in 2026, his political career may not prosper again.
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