Whether you want to believe it or not, the TV business is changing. Hollywood and its conglomerates are seeing fewer and fewer people attend silver-screen cinemas (even before COVID did its thing), while streaming services like Amazon Prime Video acquire major movie studios like MGM. Local broadcaster Multichoice has been vocal about its dislike toward international streaming services stepping into its territory. But, according to a recent report, Multichoice (which owns DStv) is set to make a 25% to 30% higher profit than last year.

This is according to a published trading statement for the year ended 31 March 2021 — and while the annual financial figures are still being finalised, the number speaks volumes towards how much the company is making.

DStv’s next payday

“MultiChoice, which owns DStv, SuperSport, Showmax and other assets, considers trading profit and core headline earnings per share (Heps) to be the two most appropriate measure of operating performance as they adjust for non-recurring and non-operational items. Core Heps will be between R1.82 and R2.11, an increase of between 32% and 37% on last year’s R5.69 figure,” TechCentral reported.

“The improved financial performance for the 2021 financial year was achieved despite continued macroeconomic and Covid-19 challenges across the African continent,” the group said in a statement to investors, according to TechCentral. “Resilient revenue growth, strong cost control, shifts in content costs and the impact of embracing new ways of working as a consequence of Covid-19 allowed the business to offset these challenges.”

The impressive increase in financial performance can be put down to a number of reasons — one major contributor being national lockdowns in South Africa and our other African counterparts. As people got used to the new normal in 2020, they took to the medium most easily accessible for entertainment: TV.