eMedia’s Openview service has recorded 2.12 million more activations in the past six years than the South African subscribers MultiChoice added to its DStv packages over the same period.
MyBroadband compared the decoder activations and net subscriber additions of South Africa’s two biggest pay-TV broadcasters over the past six years.
Openview activated nearly 2.81 million set-top boxes during the period, while DStv only added 686,000 subscribers in South Africa.
For DStv’s numbers, we used its actual subscribers at the end of each financial year, not the 90-day active metric it prefers to report to shareholders.
eMedia’s Openview service has recorded 2.12 million more activations in the past six years than the South African subscribers MultiChoice added to its DStv packages over the same period.
MyBroadband compared the decoder activations and net subscriber additions of South Africa’s two biggest pay-TV broadcasters over the past six years.
Openview activated nearly 2.81 million set-top boxes during the period, while DStv only added 686,000 subscribers in South Africa.
For DStv’s numbers, we used its actual subscribers at the end of each financial year, not the 90-day active metric it prefers to report to shareholders.
In 2019 and 2020, DStv South Africa had higher net subscriber additions than Openview.
However, the pendulum began to swing in Openview’s favour in its 2021 financial year, when it activated 368,599 decoders while DStv added 289,900 subscribers.
Openview continued to grow its annual activations in the next two years, jumping to 413,011 in 2022 and over half a million in 2023. Over the same period, DStv lost 161,000 subscribers.
In the last financial year, new Openview decoder activations declined significantly, slumping to 377,916.
However, this was still a far better performance than DStv, which lost 409,000 South African subscribers between March 2023 and March 2024.
The chart below compares the activations of Openview decoders and DStv net-subscriber additions and losses over the last six years.
As of March 2024, Openview had 3.43 million activated decoders, compared with roughly 7.61 million DStv subscribers in South Africa.
That represents a whopping growth of around 82% over six years for Openview activations, while DStv’s South African subscribers increased by roughly 10%
Comparing DStv’s subscribers with Openview activations is not entirely fair because the two companies have very different operating models.
DStv uses a combination of once-off product purchases, subscriptions, and advertising to make revenue, whereas Openview’s service is free after the initial decoder purchase and relies heavily on advertising revenue.
Each paying DStv subscriber contributes revenue to MultiChoice.
Openview does not report how many Openview decoders were deactivated or are not in use, so it is unclear how many are not actually available to generate viewership for advertising revenue.
Nonetheless, Openview’s financial performance has been a boon to eMedia.
In 2024, eMedia’s television advertising revenue reached a record R2.165 billion, which the company attributed to its prime-time audience market share of 33.5%
In contrast, DStv’s advertising revenue in South Africa declined from R3.27 billion to R3.17 billion.
DStv more sought-after but E-tv gets the viewers
Openview currently offers 21 TV channels and 28 radio stations, significantly less than most DStv packages.
While DStv is the more sought-after product with higher quality programming and range, eMedia’s channels and programmes generally enjoy far better viewership than DStv’s top channels and content.
Statistics from the Broadcasting Research Council of South Africa show that E-tv’s original programming — mostly soaps and dramas — consistently ranks among the most watched in the country.
According to the Television Audience Measurement Survey for May 2024, E-tv’s top 5 programmes all drew over 3.2 million viewers.
Six of its most-watched broadcasts were in the overall top 10 across all TV broadcasters and platforms in South Africa.
DStv’s peak viewership pales in comparison, with the most-watched programme drawing 1.34 million viewers.
E-tv — which is available on Openview, DStv, and free-to-air broadcasting — has surpassed SABC 1 as the biggest channel during prime time and shoulder time.
In the past year, ratings of Openview channels like eExtra, eMovies Extra, and eReality have placed them in the top 15 of all satellite channels.
Openview plans to launch “a few more” channels in its next financial year.
It also aims to roll out a new smart decoder with onboard storage and Wi-Fi connectivity, although it has yet to announce a launch date.
