Vodacom Agrees To Deal To Sell MultiChoice Pay-TV Services

Vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile telecommunications operator by number of subscribers, has signed an exclusive agreement with satellite television provider MultiChoice to market pay-TV services to its customers, the company said Sunday.

“With cellphone penetration in South Africa at more than 80%, Vodacom is constantly looking for opportunities to expand its growth horizontally in the market,” said Alan Knott-Craig, chief executive of Vodacom.

He said with 23 million customers in the country, Vodacom has the distribution and marketing ability to significantly expand the satellite pay-TV market.

“With less than 10 million TV sets and fewer than two million satellite pay-TV subscribers in South Africa, we can expect strong growth as Vodacom offers the most affordable satellite pay-TV so far available,” Knott-Craig said in a statement.

The company, a joint venture between South African fixed-line operator Telkom and UK mobile phone company Vodafone Group, said it already has 33,000 mobile television users who can access 22 channels on cellphones. It plans to pilot a further 17 channels across digital video broadcast to handset technology with MultiChoice.

Customers will be able to subscribe to one of two possible packages of channels from 139 rand ($19) a month.

Company Web site: http://www.vodacom.co.za

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848; robb.stewart@dowjones.com