DStv in serious trouble
DStv and Showmax are facing massive challenges, with owner Multichoice hoping it receives approval to be taken over by French giant Canal+ to save the day.
Multichoice recently reported profit reaching R1.8 billion, a marked improvement from its loss of R4 billion in 2024.
However, much of this was due to the group selling a stake in its non-core insurance business to Sanlam.
The group’s revenue was more telling of its fundamentals, dropping by around 10% to R50 billion as the media company continues to bleed subscribers.
Multichoice’s primary product is DStv, which has seen a significant reduction in subscribers over the years amidst increased competition from international streamers.
Reporting its results for the full year ending 31 March 2025, the group recorded 14.5 million subscribers across all operations—7 million of which are in South Africa and 7.5 million in its Rest of Africa segment.
The group said it lost 589,000 DStv subscribers in South Africa in the reporting period and another 591,000 subscribers in the Rest of Africa.
The figure gets even worse when looking at 90-day active subscribers, which it uses to reflect its active user base more accurately.
The group reported 20.9 million subscribers using 90-day active subscribers in 2024, dropping 11% or 2.3 million to 18.6 million subscribers in 2025.
The loss of subscribers has also reflected in a lower average revenue per user (ARPU). Blended ARPU was down 3% to R222 per subscriber from R229 previously.
Notably, the loss of subscribers in South Africa has been consistent across all its segments.
Its premium and mid-market segments lost about 100,000 customers over the past year, while 400,000 fell out of the mass market segment.
The decline in DStv is consistent with global decreases in the pay-TV industry, with Multichoice heavily focusing on its streaming service Showmax.
In 2023, former Multichoice executive Yolisa Phahle said that Showmax should generate R18 billion in net revenue within five years, with an EBITDA margin of 25%.
Although Showmax would be taking on international giants including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+, Phahle believed Showmax could become the leading streaming service in Africa.
To attain this goal, Showmax 2.0 was launched in February 2025 as a joint venture between Multichoice and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, with ownership stakes of 70% and 30%, respectively.
Multichoice aimed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2028, which is roughly R17.8 billion.
Although Multichoice’s latest financials showed a 44% growth in active paying subscribers on Showmax, its revenue in fact dropped from R2 billion in 2024 to R1.5 billion in 2025.
Showmax’s trading losses have also taken a hit, declining from R4.3 billion in 2024 to R9.1 billion in 2025. This is a significant departure from the business’ goals.
The charts below highlight the challenges facing Multichoice and Showmax.
One last chance
Amidst the problems facing its two primary sources of revenue, Multichoice is hoping that a deal with Canal+ can turn its fortunes around.
Canal+ began buying shares in Multichoice as far back as 2020, and surpassed a 35% holding in the company in 2024.
After increasing its shareholding to 35%, Canal+ made a mandatory offer to all other Multichoice shareholders of over R50 billion. The French-based company has slowly increased its stake to around 45%.
Multichoice CEO Calvo Mawela said that support from Canal + would create a media powerhouse with close to 50 million subscribers in English- and French-speaking Africa.
The larger scale would also help Multichoice take on the global streaming giants, who effectively ended the group’s monopoly in South Africa.
Mawela also believes the deal with Canal+ will help it strengthen its bargaining power to secure better content deals, which are a massive cost for the group.
The deal has recently received an enormous boost, with the parties receiving the green light from the Competition Tribunal to proceed with the deal.
The parties are now proceeding with a takeover restructuring, which must be done to meet the minimum requirements of all applicable laws, including restrictions on foreign ownership.
This includes Multichoice (Pty) Ltd, which contracts with South African subscribers, being carved out of the larger group and becoming an independent company that carries the group’s licences.
“The announcement marks a significant milestone and is a major step forward for both companies,” said Mawela.
“We look forward to executing the remaining processes required to complete the transaction and to start building something extraordinary: a global media and entertainment company with Africa at its heart.”
However, it should be noted that approvals are still needed from several other authorities before it can reach final execution.
This includes needing green lights from the Financial Surveillance Department, the JSE, the Takeover Regulation Panel, and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
Loading ...