The first foray by eMedia Holdings — the free-to-air broadcast group that owns e.tv, eNCA and OpenView — into the pay television market will target the LGBTQ community.
In August Business Day broke the news that eMedia was keen to break into the pay television market in SA, which is dominated by MultiChoice’s DStv. At that stage eMedia executives were reluctant to give more detail on the venture, other than to stress it would be focused on specific audience niches.
At the group’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday CEO Khalik Sherrif disclosed plans to target the lucrative LGBTQ markets and indicated that initial plans were for the new pay-TV venture to break even within two to three years. Other niches would also be sought, with speculation that eMedia might also chase the Afrikaans audience market.
Sheriff said the potential LGBTQ audience could be 20,000-25,000 subscribers. “It should be a good business that could grow by as much as 2,000 subscribers a month in its first year.” A monthly subscription could come to R79-R99.
He stressed eMedia is “easing” into pay television, and will not be spending too much money on the venture at the outset.
eMedia is predominantly a free-to-air television broadcaster that earns the bulk of its keep from its core business in e.tv. The group has built up the OpenView multichannel satellite platform, which is selling 40,000-50,000 set-top boxes a month.
It seems the pay television move was prompted by eMedia’s initial successes in its eVOD online entertainment channel, launched in August 2021. The number of registered eVOD viewers was about 500,000 when eMedia issued its annual report in August 2022.
The pay-TV move follows a strong financial showing by eMedia in the year to end-March when it racked up net profits of R420m off record revenue of R3.2bn. The group scored from a strong recovery in television advertising revenues after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted — it showed a marked increase in its share of prime-time audiences from 29.6% in March 2021 to 34.1% in March 2022.
Whether eMedia can repeat this financial performance in the current financial year might be difficult. Sherrif was particularly concerned about tightening advertising spending. “The liquor industry came back with a bang after Covid-19, but has now gone quiet. This market has gone back about 15% year on year.”
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