Talking about empowerment in the media industry should be something of the past. It's not.
Very little has changed in the sector in the past two years, making the subject deserving of continuing scrutiny.
For the second consecutive year, Naspers was ranked SA's most empowered media company in the 2009 Top Empowerment Companies survey. The locally brewed multinational earned a total score of 68,18% points, slightly higher than last year's 65,45%.
Coming hot on its heels is black-owned and controlled radio group Kagiso Media, which scored a total of 64,56%, earning second position.
Koos Bekker - Heads the empowered Naspers
Of the seven categories used to rate companies' empowerment progress - ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, procurement, enterprise development and socioeconomic development - Naspers performed exceptionally well in two. It scored 11,01 for its employment equity efforts and 10,90 for skills development.
The owner of SA's only pay-TV operator MultiChoice and Africa's largest publisher Media24, Naspers was outshone by Kagiso in the management, enterprise development and socioeconomic development categories. Kagiso earned 7,33, 15,00 and 4,20 points respectively while Naspers scored 0,95, 9,30 and 3,00 points in the same categories.
Naspers's scores for enterprise development and socioeconomic development were an impressive 14,31 and 4,82 (out of five) last year.
But in terms of its empowerment participation, Naspers continues to be unmatched. The conglomerate has concluded four major black economic empowerment (BEE) deals to date.
These include Phuthuma, which sold 5% of M-Net to about 8 000 black investors and Phuthuma Nathi 2, which made available a further 15% of MultiChoice for BEE for R2,2bn.
In 1999, it launched Welkom Share, which matured in 2007. For every R1 000 invested, a return of R31 000 was yielded. Black participants were paid out R235m in total.
In 2006 Welkom Share was followed by Welkom Yizani, which sold 15% of Media24 - home to the Daily Sun, Beeld and City Press - to 100 000 black people and groups for R730m.
But last year was a rough one for Naspers. The company announced it was retrenching between 10% and 20% of its Media24 staff due to declining advertising revenue and copy sales. For the six months to September, print revenue rose by a subdued 4% to R3,1bn with operating profit standing at R283m, up from R234m.
Naspers's money-maker - pay-TV - again ended the year unchallenged. Despite the hype and expectation of three new pay-TV providers last year - Telkom Media, On Digital Media and Walking on Water TV - none of them launched. The three have since moved their launch dates to June this year.
Meanwhile, MultiChoice has continued to make inroads. The company has introduced a variety of DStv bouquets targeted at the different income groups. The strategy is working. DStv subscribers increased by 171 000 during the six months to September to 1,65m and so did the company's revenue - it increased by 28% to R6,9bn.
It made R1,9bn in operating profit, down 7% due to investment in new packages and technology.
The company is also a player in the mobile TV space. With the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) expected to issue mobile TV licences this year, Naspers should be able to add SA to the list of countries - Ghana, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria - that are also receiving the service.
After years of explaining its Internet-focused growth strategy to investors, this is beginning to bear fruit. Naspers's quest is to become the leading provider of content, Internet and technology services in emerging markets.
The group's Internet division reported double growth in revenue, to R1,8bn from R654m during the period under review. This was driven largely by the inclusion of Allegro and Ricardo, which brought in R887m in revenue, Poland's Gadu-Gadu and Naspers's investment in Tencent, a highly popular Chinese online instant messaging company, which contributed R504m in core headline earnings, up from R226m in 2007.
Whether another BEE deal is on the cards for Naspers is unlikely. The multinational's focus for now is on surviving the uncertain financial environment. Because of its spread, it's also the most exposed of SA's media companies.
