{"id":841004,"date":"2025-10-26T07:34:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T05:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=841004"},"modified":"2025-10-26T07:34:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T05:34:57","slug":"new-dstv-owner-already-in-trouble-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/841004\/new-dstv-owner-already-in-trouble-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New DStv owner already in trouble in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

French pay-TV provider and DStv owner Canal+ is already in trouble in South Africa, with the Competition Commission reportedly investigating its demand for a blanket 20% discount from service providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French broadcaster, which now owns MultiChoice and its subsidiaries, including DStv, GOtv, Showmax, and DStv Stream, has recently completed its largest-ever acquisition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The merger gives Canal+ control over operations serving more than 14 million customers across Africa and combines two of the continent\u2019s biggest producers of local television content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, since taking over, Canal+ has reportedly<\/a> instructed all service providers to reduce their invoiced amounts by 20% and temporarily suspended payments while the discounts are negotiated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Business Times, the request has been applied broadly, from office suppliers to television production houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A service provider told the publication that the company\u2019s approach had been \u201chostile,\u201d claiming that suppliers were under pressure to agree or risk having their contracts terminated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry insiders said even new contractors were being asked to agree to the same discount, suggesting a company-wide policy rather than an isolated dispute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move has prompted outcry from suppliers and an actors\u2019 industry body, which has questioned whether such unilateral action violates the merger conditions imposed by the Competition Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Commission, which approved Canal+\u2019s takeover of MultiChoice earlier this year under strict public-interest conditions, confirmed to Business Times that it would \u201cestablish whether there has been a breach of the conditions of approval of the merger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to questions about the discount and payment freeze, MultiChoice said the company had been implementing aggressive cost-cutting measures for several years, and that this continued after the merger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trouble comes as MultiChoice becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Canal+<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It added that managing costs was important to ensure the group could continue to support the South African and African broadcasting ecosystem and meet the public interest commitments made to the Competition Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisition marks a major shift<\/a> for both companies. Canal+ brings the financial scale and content library of a large European broadcaster, while MultiChoice offers extensive regional reach and local production capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, the combined group produces about 10,000 hours of local content each year in as many as 35 languages, strengthening its position as one of the largest media players on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 13 October 2025, Canal+ announced<\/a> that it had secured 94.39% of MultiChoice\u2019s shares following its R125-per-share mandatory buyout offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more than 90% of shareholders accepting the offer, Canal+ invoked Section 124(1) of the Companies Act to begin a \u201csqueeze-out\u201d process, forcing remaining shareholders to sell their stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Reserve Bank has approved the transaction, and Friday, 24 October 2025, will be the final day of trading MultiChoice shares on the JSE and A2X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shares will be suspended on Monday, 27 October, ahead of full delisting on 10 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+\u2019s entry into South Africa\u2019s media landscape represents a significant moment for the local broadcasting industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has said the merger will expand investment in African content, improve access to global programming, and create opportunities for collaboration across markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DStv owner Canal+ is already in trouble in South Africa, with the Competition Commission reportedly investigating its latest move to cut costs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":747504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[6633,1516,78,1253,853],"class_list":["post-841004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-canal","tag-competition-commission","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841009,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841004\/revisions\/841009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}