MultiChoice dominates SABC, Netflix, and eMedia

The latest PressPulse rankings show that MultiChoice received much better media coverage than its main competitors, SABC, Netflix, and eMedia.

PressPulse is an online media-sentiment tracking platform that developed a custom artificial intelligence (AI) sentiment-measuring system.

The system uses sophisticated natural language processing and deep learning for accurate sentiment detection.

It focuses on South African business reporting from top-tier publications and measures companies’ success in achieving positive exposure.

The sentiment ranking is based on the number of positive, neutral, or negative articles and the reach and influence of the publication where they are published.

Simply put, the more positive articles a company receives, the better its sentiment ranking. It also accounts for the reach of each article.

Each company is assigned a sentiment score, which reflects its performance. A positive score shows positive exposure, while a negative score shows negative exposure.

The size of the score indicates the impact of the exposure. A big positive score, for example, shows that a company enjoyed highly impactful positive exposure.

Press Pulse’s sentiment analysis for South Africa’s entertainment platforms showed that MultiChoice topped the rankings with a positive sentiment score of 77.2.

MultiChoice achieved this high positive sentiment score despite relatively poor financial results amidst a challenging trading environment.

Although MultiChoice’s sentiment score declined following the results, which was expected, the coverage was still predominantly positive.

Over the last three months, there were 66 positive, 26 negative, and 77 neutral articles about MultiChoice among South Africa’s top publications.

This points to a highly effective media and marketing strategy, with a proactive approach to ensure positive reporting.

eMedia and SABC, the two largest broadcasters in South Africa after MultiChoice, lagged in media sentiment.

eMedia achieved a positive media sentiment score of 0.54, and the SABC was a close third with a score of 0.28.

Netflix was the only platform which received a negative sentiment score of -4.95. Considering the service’s popularity, this suggests a poor media and marketing strategy.

The table and chart below provide an overview of the online media sentiment for the top media companies in South Africa.