How MultiChoice Plans To Capture Fintech As Pay-TV Faces Pressures

Africa’s leading pay-TV provider, MultiChoice Group, is facing a rapidly evolving market landscape. With growing competition from global streaming giants and economic headwinds, the company is betting on new avenues, notably fintech, to secure its future. Through its joint venture Moment, unveiled last May, MultiChoice is making an ambitious play to redefine digital payments across Africa.

The continent’s complex financial ecosystem presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Joel Yarbrough, CEO of Moment, and Craig Coetzer, MultiChoice’s Africa Group Executive Head Delivery & Operations, highlight this duality. “Africa is an exciting, vibrant, and creative place to do business. But make no mistake, it has its challenges. Currency devaluation, political instability, and service disruptions are endemic,” they wrote in a joint op-ed shared with WT.

This environment, however, also creates fertile ground for innovation. With Africa’s population projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, the need for robust digital infrastructure has never been clearer. Moment aims to meet this demand by providing a pan-African payment platform that simplifies, standardises, and automates financial transactions.

From Pay-TV to Payment Rails

For nearly 40 years, MultiChoice has been a household name in Africa, serving over 23.5 million customers across 50+ markets. But the pay-TV market is increasingly crowded, and economic pressures are squeezing consumer wallets. In response, MultiChoice has sought to diversify its revenue streams beyond TV even as it remains locked in talks with French TV giant Canal+ over a potentially momentous acquisition.

Moment is the centrepiece of this strategy. Announced in 2023, the fintech venture was launched in partnership with payments company Rapyd and venture capital firm General Catalyst. The platform consolidates the USD 3.5 B in annual payments processed by MultiChoice into a single ecosystem.

CEO Calvo Mawela framed this move as a natural evolution. “Moment fulfils our strategy to expand our ecosystem by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology,” Mawela said at the venture’s unveiling last year.

Building Africa’s Payment Backbone

Moment’s approach is as ambitious as it is expansive. By November 2024, MultiChoice collected 35% of its revenue through Moment’s payment rails. The platform supports over 200 payment methods, including mobile money, digital wallets, bank transfers, and in-person payments at over a million locations.

The platform also addresses key infrastructure challenges. Its cloud-native design ensures resilience in the face of network outages and power cuts, which are common in many African markets, its executives emphasise. Automated reconciliation and settlement systems further streamline operations for businesses, enabling them to focus on growth rather than administrative overhead.

A particularly bold aspect of Moment’s vision is its embrace of real-time payments. The venture has championed PayShap, South Africa’s real-time payments system, and is working to expand similar capabilities across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Nigeria.

The Bigger Picture

Moment isn’t just about MultiChoice. The venture aims to serve Africa’s 44 million small businesses and 350 million underbanked consumers. By providing localised and consolidated payment solutions, and enterprise financial services, Moment aims to position itself as a transformative force in the continent’s financial landscape.

Yet, this transformation won’t happen overnight. Africa’s payment ecosystem is fragmented, and success will depend on navigating regulatory hurdles, building trust, and fostering adoption. Yarbrough and Coetzer emphasise the importance of relationships in this context. “It’s not so much about throwing money at a problem. It’s about investing time, building trust, meeting with partners and regulators, and understanding each other’s needs,” they wrote.

For MultiChoice, Moment represents both a lifeline and a leap of faith. As the pay-TV giant faces mounting pressures, adaptability has become imperative to its relevance in a digital-first future.

The stakes are enormous. If successful, Moment could become the backbone of Africa’s digital economy, driving financial inclusion and economic growth. If it falters, it will be a costly misstep for a company already fighting to retain its share of the pie in the entertainment industry.

As Mawela noted, “Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us.” Whether logic alone will be enough remains to be seen.