"The Bollore Effect": Could SABC News, eNCA And Newzroom Afrika Also Be Impacted By Canal+ Possible Takeover Of MultiChoice?

MultiChoice is technically insolvent a position in which the liabilities weigh more than their assets meaning the company won't be able to cover most of their expenses and could go bankrupt. So they're reliant on Canal+ transaction in order to remain afloat as they take the matter to legislation.

As some readers are aware, there was reports going around about the potential owners Canal+ and Vivendi that similar to MultiChoice would buy up shares in a company before staging a hostile takeover. But most of the attention was pointed toward the editorial staff and the effects this transaction had on them.

eMedia Investments' Openview and StarSat already package the French news channel France24 alongside MultiChoice's DStv in the Eastern and Western parts of Africa. This channel has been subjected to "editorial interference" or as the media would brand this situation "corporate bullying".

The owners in question would force a channel like France24 to express certain views about a topic and failure to abide by those policies would risk that individual their job. Corporate would go about hiring someone who is willing to follow guidelines which is why France24 looks the way it is now.

With Canal+ obtaining almost half of MultiChoice shares there's fear lurking around that SABC News, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika heading down a similar route. Although Canal+ wouldn't own these channels they would own MultiChoice which in turn owns France24 and would want to level the playing field.

With Canal+ already prioritizing C8 and BFM alongside France24 in Africa another fear surrounding these channels would be budget cuts. The first thing that will happen once the transaction concludes would be corporate downsizing with lower to upper management seeing cuts with branches closing down.

Openview: "The Challenges Of Establishing A Competitor To SABC News And eNCA"

MultiChoice remains a dominant player in the African landscape against the likes of Zuku TV, Azam TV and StarTimes with their DStv offering but in recent years this has been under threat against the likes of Disney+ and Netflix. They (or in particular MultiChoice Africa) is currently in the process of being acquired by the French broadcaster after serving as a competitor in the region.

SABC News, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika serve as those leading destinations for editorial news and throughout their existence hpas only been packaged within MultiChoice's offering. This is because the pay-tv company had been allocating funds for content and staff and unlike some brands like BBC News hadn't received much funding from a third party.

It is one of those reasons that SABC News had been removed from DTT platforms and replaced by SABC Lehae and why eNCA is not seen on eMedia Investment's Openview. There was a whole debate about tandrying to get these brands onto more platforms outside of MultiChoice's reach but the trail had since then been dried out of course there were multiple attempts at launching a competitive offering.

Sometime after StarTimes had acquired TopTV, they had explored the idea of launching a local news channel within the South African market but deemed it too expensive and abandoned those plans. eMedia Investments became the second broadcaster with OpenNews (before becoming News And Sports) and the channel wasn't financially sustainable which led to it's demise.

SABC became the third broadcaster with SABC Lehae the only problem was that the channel is accessibility as SABC had reported that DTT had only accumulated around 400,000 activations by 2020. Yet, eMedia Investments had accumulated over 2 million subscribers by then despite rolling out their STBs years after they were made available to the market.

The fact that SABC News is not on Openview doesn't mean the chances of acquiring it for the platform is unlikely. eMedia Investments could as well look into licensing SABC News but from what was speculated from some insiders the costs to acquire such a channel might not came in their favor cause eMedia. relies on advertising while MultiChoice offers a pay-tv service.

eMedia Investments Unveiled Annual Performance From 31 March 2024 And Plans Ahead For Their Platforms

eMedia’s financial performance

eMedia presents a satisfactory financial performance for the 2024 financial year given its mitigation against continued loadshedding, which had a negative impact on overall viewership and saw a further decline in television advertising spend of approximately 1%.

The actors and writers’ strike in Hollywood at the beginning of the financial year also had a severe negative impact on one of the subsidiaries in the Group, Media Film Service, which made R31.5 million less in profit after tax when compared to the prior year. The Group also continued its legal battles against Multichoice during the current financial year spending R8.8 million more in the current year when compared to the prior year.

Notwithstanding all the negative impacts to business operations in the macro-economic environment in South Africa, the Group was able to return favourable results and further continues with the declaration of dividends to its shareholders with a dividend of 16 cents per share at the close of the financial year.

Revenue and market share

The Group’s revenue for the fiscal of R3.1 billion is only 2.1% less than the previous year which can be mainly attributed to the decreased revenue earned by Media Film Service as mentioned above. This was further underscored by television advertising revenue ending on R2.165 billion an increase of 3% despite the television advertising cake declining by 1%. This is the highest television advertising revenue earned by the Group in its history.

The Group once again outperformed the market in terms of advertising revenue in the television market. This benefit in advertising revenues can be attributed to the Group maintaining prime-time audience market share at 33.5% in March 2024 from 34.5% in March 2023, a slight decrease year on year.

Further analysis of the Group’s market share reveals an increase in both shoulder and prime time. The share ended at 33.0% and 33.5% respectively, making the Group the biggest broadcaster in audience share in prime time and second to DStv in shoulder time in South Africa.

e.tv

The prime-time market share for e.tv has shown a slight decrease of 0.7% to 20.7% audience share. Of interest, however, is that e.tv is now the biggest channel during both prime time and shoulder time surpassing SABC1. The continued loadshedding saw a change in viewer patterns and this saw an impact on some of the shows. Scandal (19:30 to 20:00) and House of Zwide (19:00 to 19:30) continues to have a demanding market share in their respective timeslots with Scandal, however, coming into some competition with SABC1 moving Skeem Saam from its 18:30 slot to the 19:30 slot.

During the year, e.tv launched new dramas, Smoke and Mirrors at 21:00 to 21:30 and Isitha at 21:30 to 22:00. Both these dramas command the number one position in their timeslots. The 18:30 drama, Nikiwe was withdrawn from the schedule as it was not commanding a satisfactory market share and was replaced by a new drama, Isipetho, which has more than doubled the market share.

e.tv now spends approximately R600 million annually on local drama series and again shows the dedication of the Group to grow the local television industry.

e.tv continues to face the impact of the uncertainty of the imminent analogue switch-off facing the country but the Group is confident that the audience share will be carefully managed. At present the Group is once again engaging with the Department of Communication in relation to the switch-off date regarding e.tv analogue transponders. The Group is firm in the belief that too many ordinary South Africans will remain without TV in a hard switch-off environment.

Openview and multichannel

The non-linear eMedia channels continue to improve their ratings with eExtra, eMovies Extra and eReality which rank in the top 15 of all satellite channels available in South Africa. A few more channels will be launched on the Openview platform in the new fiscal year.

The rest of the eMedia channels, available on multiple platforms accounted for 26.9% of the advertising revenue amounting to R610.6 million which is up from R501.3 million in the previous year. Profitability in this unit has been maintained with content costs for the fiscal year being pegged at R325.6 million.

The distribution of the four eMedia entertainment channels on Multichoice, which contributed to the Group’s audience and revenue share, is still under investigation by the Competition Commission after non-renewal of the channel carriage agreement. At the time of this report, the channels remain on the Multichoice bouquet, and the court case is set down for August 2024. As mentioned, this has attributed to the year-on-year increase in legal costs.

The set-top box activations for Openview for the year amounted to 377 916 taking the amount of activated set-top boxes to 3 428 523 activated at the end of the period. Technological advancements being the focus of the business will bring in the next upgraded phase of the Openview set-top box, a smarter set-top box which will have memory facilities and Wi-Fi capability.

eNCA

eNCA continues to perform satisfactorily in its targeting of the discerning news viewer. In an attempt to engage the viewer, the channel has changed its positioning from ‘No Fear, No Favour’, to ‘Question, Think, Act’. It also continues to be the leading advertising revenue generator in the news market.

Other subsidiaries

All of the Group’s subsidiaries, with the exception of Media Film Service, have performed exceptionally with Y ending the year on a profit after tax of R16.8 million, an increase of 6% year on year.

Costs

Administrative and other costs were well maintained, increasing by only 2.35% year on year. This increase is mainly due to marketing activities returning back to normal, increases in legal fees as previously discussed and the adverse impact of the rand fluctuation.

Cost of sales, which mainly consists of the cost of content, in the case of e.tv, employee costs in the case of eNCA, and cost of the Openview decoder sales, decreased from R1 629.4 million to R1 584.8 million. A significant portion of the decrease can be attributed to close control of content costs across the channels and the retrenchments to create efficiencies within eNCA.

Profitability

The only asset of the Group is a 67.69% interest in eMedia Investments, the company that owns e.tv, eNCA, Openview, eVOD among other businesses.

eMedia Investments ended the year with a net profit after tax of R353.2 million, compared to a profit of R404.7 million in the prior year. The above profit should be viewed in light of the continued loadshedding and the impact this had on the advertising cake, foreign exchange rate and the impact of diesel usage on the business, as well as the increased legal and marketing costs together with the impact of the actors and writers’ strike in faraway Hollywood.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the Group ended on R628.3 million compared to R667.2 million in the prior year.

Conclusion

The Group is forging ahead with numerous technology advances and strategic planning to continue to be the audience share market leader. The investment in Openview provides the Group with the strategic flexibility and is the plan to address the challenges of the transition that digital migration brings with it. The Group also intends to launch a number of digital developments to enhance its revenue generation capabilities and take advantage of our highly in-demand content.

The Group remains focused on its core business of broadcasting, content creation, platform advancements and a granular focus on technology that improves the broadcasting process.

eMedia Investments And MultiChoice Renew Carriage Agreement For eNCA Through 2027, Still Silent On eMedia's 4 Other Channels Currently Seen On DStv

Yesterday, eMedia Investments revealed in their annual financial results that it secured a five-year extension with MultiChoice to carry eNCA on DStv. It also sold exclusive rights to carry its flagship news channel, blocking its own platforms like Openview from carrying it.

eMedia said it maintained its prime-time audience market share of 34.5% across E-tv, Openview, and eNCA — up slightly from 34.1% on March 2022. E-tv’s prime-time market share dropped back 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”. This is despite the channel not being offered on all DStv packages, whereas its competition is, eMedia said.

Last year, the company was embroiled in a carriage battle with the pay-tv company for their 4 channels: eExtra, eToonz, eMovies and eMovies Extra. Since August 2022, the channel remained onboard on the platform following pending investigation.

Of course, eMedia Investments remained silent at the time of publication so we assume these channels might as well be a gonner as MultiChoice isn't looking to carry these channels full-time while eMedia Investments hopes to see them continue on the platform.

As for eNCA, we can only assume that the only way you can get this on Openview is through the pay tier, Ultraview. But majority of Openview consumers can't afford or aren't willing to pay for the the bouquet with some comparing it to the likes of DStv.

eNCA Reveals An Empowering New Brand Identity

eNCA reveals an empowering new brand identity with an emotive call to action, inspiring South Africa to make the news their own.

From 1 May, viewers will see an updated logo and fresh look for the channel.

The channel made history when it launched on 1 June 2008 as South Africa's first 24-hour news service.

Since then, it's dominated the market as a leading and discerning voice in the South African local news landscape and trusted as a reliable source of news and current affairs.

As part of the refresh, viewers can expect some updates in the daily broadcast schedule.

Viewers can look forward to entertaining mornings with a simulcast of The Morning Show (currently on e.tv) from 6 to 9am, followed by Tumelo Mothotoane and Gareth Edwards on NewsLink from 9am to midday.

Viewers will still see the familiar faces they’ve grown to rely on, and also some new ones who will join the channel.

Amongst others, Shahan Ramkissoon will be back with a brand-new show: The Last Word, which will be broadcast on Thursday and Friday evenings at 8pm.

The weekend schedule is also being refreshed. Going forward, We the Nation will be shown on Sundays at 8pm.

eNCA will also extend its broadcast hours until midnight, every night.

eMedia Investment's Financial Reports: Viewership, Finances And More Channels

eMedia’s Financial Performance
For the year ending 31 March 2022, eMedia has experienced a resounding bounce back in its fnancial performance after the impact of the pandemic on businesses and the economy generally. This resounding bounce back is evident in a signifcant increase in proft from continued operations of R426.4 million as compared to the previous year’s proft of R138.5 million.

The year’s proft is also signifcantly better than the pre-COVID-19 year fiscal which ended in March 2020, which ended with an adjusted proft after adding back the goodwill impairment of R241.6 million. This fscal as compared to the pre-COVID-19 March 2020 proft shows a R184.8 million increase or a 76.5% increase and as compared to March 2021 is R287.9 million more and 207.9% better.

Revenue and Market Share
The Group’s revenue for the fiscal of R3.2 billion is the highest ever achieved, underscored by an increase in television advertising revenue to R2.1 billion. The television advertising revenue ended 39% better than the prior year and approximately 15% better than the market.

 

 

The Group beneftted from the resurgence of television advertising revenues as compared to the pandemic affected years which experienced a decline in advertising spend. This beneft in advertising revenues can be attributed to an increase in the Group’s prime time audience market share from 29.6% in March 2021 to 34.1% in March 2022, an increase of 15.2%.

Further analysis of the Group’s market share reveals an increase in both shoulder and prime time. The share ended at 31.8% and 34.1% respectively, making the Group the biggest broadcaster in audience share in both categories in South Africa.

e.tv
The increase in audience market share has driven up eTV’s advertising revenue. e.tv’s local dailies such as Imbewu, Scandal, House of Zwide and Durban General have driven the surge in market share in prime time. Edged on by this, management have invested in another local daily soap at 9.30 pm called The Black Door. With a few schedule changes Management is confdent of increasing market share.

e.tv may well be affected by the imminent analogue switch of facing the country but the group is confdent that the audience share will be carefully managed. At present the Group is awaiting a Constitutional Court decision on whether the switch off would be delayed giving more time to assist ordinary South Africans to be well accommodated and not be left without TV.

 

 

Openview
There has also been an improvement in the ratings of the other six channels produced by the group. eExtra, eMovies Extra and eReality rank in the top 15 of all satellite channels available in South Africa. A few more channels will be launched on the Openview platform.

This DTH unit of the business accounted for 21.9% of the advertising revenue amounting to R468.1 million which is up from R269.6 million in the previous year. Proftability in this unit has been achieved for the frst time with content costs for the fscal being pegged at R446.3 million.

The distribution of the four Openview entertainment channels on Multichoice, which contributed to the Group’s audience and revenue share, is presently under investigation by the Competition Commission after non-renewal of the channel carriage agreement. At the time of this report the channels remain on the Multichoice bouquet as a decision is yet to be received.

The set-top box activations for Openview are increasing on a monthly basis from an average of 35 000 per month to 40 000 per month. At the end of the period a total of 2 774 454 boxes were activated.

 

Technological advancements being the focus of the business will bring in the next upgraded phase of the Openview set-top box, a smarter set-top box which will have memory facilities and Wi-Fi capability.

eNCA
The news channel, eNCA, is the most watched news channel in the country, although it’s not offered on all tiers of the DSTV bouquet, whereas the competition is on all tiers. The advertising revenue targets were achieved through the pandemic affected years while its costs were carefully maintained.

The group has secured a further fve year agreement with Multichoice for the carriage of eNCA. The channel will remain exclusive to Mutichoice.

eVOD
In August 2021 eMedia launched an OTT platform, eVOD which has been well accepted in its target market. The number of registered viewers to date has been very encouraging with the average daily minutes viewed in excess of 1 000 000. The eOriginals offering on eVOD is the leading audience generator on eVOD making the group bullish about investing a further R100 million in local original content which will be amortised across the Group’s platforms and channels.

 

Other Subsidiaries
All of the groups subsidiaries which include Media Film Service, Sasani Studios, The Refnery, Cape Town Film Studios and YFM have posted better results having recovered from the COVID-19 years and all have returned to proftability.

Costs
Administrative and other costs have been well maintained although an increase of 19.7% has been revealed. This increase is mainly due to certain companies within the Group returning to 100% of salaries after reductions in the period of lockdowns and an increase in marketing activities after the lull brought on by the pandemic.

Cost of sales, which mainly consists of the cost of content, in the case of e.tv and employee costs in the case of eNCA, increased from R1 494.2 million to R1 748.1 million. Much of this increase is because of the bold step of introducing a new prime time daily “soap”, Durban General which launched in October 2020. This calculated risk was rewarded by the outstanding performance of the programme in its time slot. The fnancial year has also seen another new “soap”, House of Zwide replace Rhythm City. House of Zwide improved the group’s market share in the time slot. This increase in share of both of the new soaps underwrites an increase in revenue.

Proftability
The only asset of the group is a 67.69% interest in eMedia Investments the company that owns etv, eNCA, Openview, eVOD among other businesses.
The Group ended the year with a net proft of R420.8 million, which is inclusive of the loss of R5.6 million relating to discontinued operations, made up of losses from operations that the Group has considered non-essential and will be exiting or closing in the next fnancial year.

 

 

The above proft should be viewed in the context of the proft of the prior year of R107.9 million and an adjusted proft of R225.0 million in the year ended 31 March 2020. The year before the impact of the pandemic.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization for the Group ended on R677.9 million compared to R302.9 million in the prior year, a 123.8% increase year-on-year.

Conclusion
The Group is forging ahead with numerous technology advances and strategic planning to continue to be the audience share market leader. The investment in Openview provides the Group with the strategic flexibility and is the plan to address the challenges of the transition that digital migration brings with it.

With the closure of non-core assets, the Group is now focused on its core business of broadcasting, content creation, platform advancements and a granular focus on technology that improves broadcasting.

SABC To Launch More HD Channels And Delayed Their Streaming Service To The Next Financial Year + Possible Outcomes For eMedia Investments Agreement With MultiChoice For eNCA (Still Involves Openview)

Upcoming developments for the SABC

In 2018, SABC had announced plans to launch a streaming service and since then it's been delayed likely due to their contract agreement with the Asian streaming service, VIU which bundles several shows from eMedia Investments such as Scandal and Imbewu.

Perhaps it will be called: SABC VOD, SABC Streaming, SABC On Demand, SABC iPlayer or SABC Plus/SABC+.

According to Madoda Mxakwe on CxO Series, the public broadcaster is expected to launch some HD channels likely the two long awaited channels on Openview one of which were rumoured to be SABC Encore while upgrading SABC Education to HD in the next financial year accompanied by an OTT service.

The public broadcaster stated in some documents that the streaming service will be available before the end of current financial year which is March 31st, 2022 and is anyone surprised that they've never reached the deadline.

For almost a year, Openview consumers have been waiting on the two channels promised to them by both eMedia Investments and the SABC in mid 2021. Since then several names pop-up part of which were part of their DTT plans and still need to be addressed: SABC Encore (as mentioned), SABC Parliament and SABC Children.

The future of eNCA and e.tv News

Every year, eMedia Investments and MultiChoice enter negotiations regarding the carriage agreement of eNCA alongside several other channels packaged by the eBrand.

For several years, eMedia Investments had expressed their frustration with MultiChoice as other brands such as Newsroom Afrika and SABC News make more money than them despite having the most watched news channel on their platform.

Also read:
- SABC Encore and SABC Children channel might be in development for Openview
- DreamWorks Channel will be added to MultiChoice's DStv
- Should eReality merge with News And Sport?
- The Estate cancelled only on SABC 1 for new drama series
- Warner Bros. Discovery potential channel closures
- A list of Afrikaans voice actors for Die Put and Droomvelore
- Why VH1 Classic was terminated on DStv?
- Lifetime could be on the chopping block on DStv
- Saloni and East Meets West coming soon to SABC 2
- Dokter Ali S2 coming in April to eExtra

News And Sport is set to go off air by the end of March on Openview and the retrenchments following onto eMedia Investments kind of lead to the question over the fate of e.tv News segments.

The NewsLink Block on eNCA is changing headquarters which was held in the same spot as e.tv News is moving to the spot renovated by eNCA on DStv with new anchors.

eNCA launching on Openview to some extent???

Regarding the upcoming agreement, is it possible that e.tv News and eNCA will be unified under one brand just like SABC News segments on SABC 1-3 with the linear channel on DStv.

SABC News is available on SABC's DTT but the likely reason is the limitations as the public broadcaster isn't selling them like hot cakes but putting up a fence requiring households with an income of less than R3200 to obtain them at their nearest post office.

Adding eNCA onto Openview was seen as a get out of jail free card for DStv customers who are fed up with the yearly increases and never ending repeats and MultiChoice didn't want any of that but how about a portion of the brand?

You can also find me through the other platforms by pressing this link in brackets and if you're struggling to share the article through certain platforms use this link (Lnk.Bio).

OpenView Gains More Subscribers During Lockdown And Scraps Streaming Service In Favor Of Another One

Openview, the free-to-air satellite platform in the eMedia Holdings stable and a sister company to e.tv, has increased the number of activations of its set-top boxes by more than 18% in the past year, to almost 2.4 million units.

That’s an improvement from the just less than two million activations recorded a year ago.

The figures were disclosed in JSE-listed eMedia’s results for the year ended 31 March 2021, which were published on Thursday.

The media group is now promising to launch new channels in the current financial year to improve the breadth of the Openview content offering. it also said it will launch a streaming video offering called eVOD in July, but didn’t provide any further details about the product or what programming it will offer.

In the last financial period, they promised to launch a new streaming service known as OpenView+ last year in October that never materialized only for them to go mute.

My presumed guess would be that the platform would be a lighter version of Showmax filled with a ton of series and movies (few exclusives) that is FREE and carries the eFamily channels.

Openview, inclusive of the e.tv multi-channel business, earned advertising revenue of R269.6-million in the year to March, up from R194.1-million previously. However, it incurred content costs of R366.9-million, up from R308.7-million in 2020.

Market share
“The increase is attributable to the additional sports on the news and sports channel as well as the addition of the Afrikaans block on eExtra,” eMedia said. These content investments have increased the television viewing market share of the group, it added.

Operating expenses at Openview fell by 7% due to the group ending a consumer subsidy of set-top boxes that was designed to drive sales. “Despite this reduction in subsidy, Openview set-top box activations continue to grow at an average of 35 000/month.”

eMedia Holdings reported full-year headline earnings per share of 16.42c, or about half the 33.34c reported in 2020. Revenue from continuing operations was R2.4-billion, compared to R2.5-billion last year. 

Read Also:
- e.tv to become another SABC
- Nickelodeon returns to e.tv (updated)
- Till The End Of Time coming soon to eExtra
- Analogue TV is going off air soon, be sure to get a decoder when purchasing a TV set
- Linear channels switch to 7 day viewing, Will SABC and e.tv viewers be able to cope
- SABC and e.tv ratings for April
- Judge Judy seen on e.tv ending after 25 seasons
- Is an SABC 4 and SABC 5 channel on the way?
- Details on SABC's kids brand (not SABC Education)
- Other shows coming soon to eToonz?
- e.tv acquired rights to Erkenci Kus
- SABC to launch a streaming service
- Current status of TV licence