Has Canal+ Bitten Off More Than It Can Chew With Its Purchase Of Multichoice?

• Updated on November 5, 2025, to include the impact of Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Africa’s biggest pay TV provider, Multichoice, is facing major headwinds resulting in severe loss in subscriber count in the period since it was acquired by French media giant Canal+.

Not only is Multichoice facing massive subscriber churn, but it is also facing the potential loss of over 12 international channels that it distributes across Africa, following deadlocks in distribution discussions with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which owns them. Among the channels the business may lose are significant ones such as The Food Network, CNN, Cartoon Network, TNT Africa and Discovery Channel.

This information came to light during Canal+’s latest strategy and outlook presentation, and the first one since its purchase of Multichoice was confirmed. Per the French owned pay TV conglomerate, the brutal subscriber loss has climbed up to 2.8 million users in South Africa alone by the year ended September 2025, from a peak number of 17.3 million subscribers at the end of March 2023. This represents a 16% decline in numbers.

While this number is reflective of the situation in South Africa only, other countries such as Kenya have also recorded a similar trend. In Kenya alone, numbers dipped by 84% in the year preceding September 2025, as detailed in a Communications Authority report released in September. In Nigeria, Multichoice lost 1.4 million subscribers in the two-year period ended June 2025. Both Nigeria and Kenya are key markets for the African entertainment provider.

The decline is attributed to the entry of global streaming service Netflix in 2016, which is when Multichoice’s DStv started to experience this steep decline. Unlike Multichoice, which requires heavy hardware investment and offers steep package pricing, all one needs to access Netflix is a reliable internet connection and a paid subscription.

Multichoice has tried to counter Netflix’s invasion with its own streaming service, Showmax; however, Showmax has faced its own difficulties in the recent past, with multiple users reporting difficulty in paying for their subscriptions, as well as a recent partnership with Peacock TV which saw disruptions in access to its platforms while the two respective company’s apps were merged.

Multichoice has previously tried to stem this churn by combining its Premium offering with its Compact Plus, creating a new premium subscription tier. It has also changed its reporting period from overall subscriber gain or loss over the course of a financial year, to a ’90-day active subscriber’ period. None of these moves has stalled or reversed the loss. They have also failed to address customer dissatisfaction with the overall product; in a world overtaken by on-demand viewing, is there still space for non-news, non-sports appointment entertainment? Multichoice also stands accused of poor overall television offerings.

Further complicating Multichoice’s position come January 1, 2026, is the acquisition of WBD’s content library by Multichoice’s biggest competitor, Netflix. WBD, which owns channels such as HBO and streaming service HBO Max, put itself up for sale in October 2025. Netflix was facing stiff bidding competition from Paramount and Comcast until Netflix won the bidding war on November 5, 2025. This means that going forward (pending regulatory approvals and a potential lawsuit from Paramount) Netflix now owns WBD’s superior content, and streaming and studio services; these do not include cable TV channels such as CNN and TNT.

This could throw discussions between Multichoice and WBD into a spin, potentially locking out important channels in Multichoice’s premium offering – for good. Crucially, Multichoice’s exclusive distribution deal with HBO could also see an end to an important pillar in both DStv and Showmax’s basket of goodies. To survive, Canal+ would have to make some difficult decisions, including shutting its pay TV wing down and focusing on cultivating streaming relationships with globally relevant streaming services such as Hulu, to compliment its current arrangement with Peacock. Canal+ would also have to increase its investment in original African content.

In the interim, according to MultiChoice’s pre-takeover report, currency depreciation was one of the culprits for its decline, as was economic disruption across the continent, and piracy. Among the company’s measures to overtake its circumstances was an aggressive price hike – even while subscribers walked away.

Recently, Canal+ announced its rescue plan, which included bringing the prices of hardware and subscriptions down, as well enhancing its African offering. However, the question still remains: With Multichoice increasingly seeming like a relic from the past in a world overtaken by the instant demand for entertainment, is there still space for it in African homes, or should they pivot entirely and focus on streaming-only services?