The most fascinating number revealed in Naspers's interim results for the six months to the end of September 2017 is one of the smallest: a seemingly tiny drop in subscribers to the DStv premium package on the MultiChoice pay-TV platform. While overall DStv subscribers grew by 1.23million, the number of premium customers fell by a "mere" 115000. But there is deep significance to that number. There has long been talk about the price of the premium bouquet being the Achilles heel in a seemingly invulnerable business. The moment people install high-speed fibre-to-the-home and discover that the rich content of Netflix and Showmax video-on-demand comes at a fraction of the price of the premium package, goes the argument, they are going to jump ship. This was one of the reasons MultiChoice decided recently to fold its own video-on-demand service, Showmax, into the premium bouquet at no cost. It was a startling but revealing move. The massive range of exclusive sports broadcast licences he...
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