MultiChoice continues to lose customers, with its new owner, Canal+, looking to change the embattled broadcaster’s path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, Canal+ finalised its takeover of MultiChoice, the owner of DStv, in a deal worth over R50 billion. The deal saw MultiChoice delisted from the JSE, and it is now reported in Canal+’s results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The French broadcaster said that MultiChoice experienced strong growth from 2010 to 2023 but has faced severe challenges since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is due to several macroeconomic factors, including load shedding, the devaluation of the Naira, heightened inflation, and the difficult transition to OTT and the “expensive failure” of Showmax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canal+ said that MultiChoice addressed the situation through short-term measures, namely reductions in subscriber-acquisition subsidies and price increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this hurt its subscriber base, which worsened the original profitability issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, MultiChoice saw a decline in its total subscriber base from 14.9 million in 2024 to 14.4 million in 2025. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This led to a 6% decline in MultiChoice’s revenues from \u20ac2,542 million (around R48 billion at current exchange rates) in 2024 to \u20ac2,400 million (R45 billion) in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MultiChoice’s adjusted EBIT declined by 14% from \u20ac185 million (R3.5 billion) in 2024 to \u20ac159 million (R3 billion), which was before the positive impacts of the PPA created following the 2025 acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Canal+ said that cost-cutting initiatives partially mitigated the impact of the decrease in revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cash flow from operating activities increased respectively from \u20ac138 million (R2.6 billion) in 2024 to \u20ac226 million (R4.28 billion) in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Free cash flow (before exceptional items) from -\u20ac56 million (-R1.06 billion) in 2024 to -\u20ac42 million (-R796 million) in 2025, benefiting from various deferred payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We have completed the acquisition of MultiChoice, and we have identified run-rate cost savings from synergies of \u20ac400m from 2030 onwards,” said CEO Maxime Saada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking ahead to 2026, Canal+ said that MultiChoice is facing a \u20ac140 million (R2.6 billion) negative impact from subscriber base inertia, driving declining revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To restart growth, Canal+ will launch a growth boost plan, investing around \u20ac100 million (R1.8 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to recent initiatives, from the discontinuation of Showmax, Canal+ said that the delivery of cost synergies accelerated and is expected to reach \u20ac250m in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The combined effects result in an estimated Adjusted EBIT of around \u20ac170 million (R3.2 billion for MultiChoice in 2026, an \u20ac11 million (R200 million) increase compared to the \u20ac159 million (R3 billion) Adjusted EBIT in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CFFO and FCF before restructuring costs are expected to reach a negative \u20ac100 million (-R1.9 billion), and a negative \u20ac50 million (R950 million), respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Multichoice has lost half a million subscribers, as it starts a new era under the ownership of Canal+. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":840997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[78,1253],"class_list":["post-853582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853582","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853582"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853591,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853582\/revisions\/853591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Metric<\/strong><\/td> Canal+ (Historical)<\/strong><\/td> MultiChoice<\/strong><\/td> Combined Group<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Subscribers (m)<\/strong><\/td> 28.0<\/td> 14.4<\/td> 42.3<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Revenues (\u20acm)<\/strong><\/td> 6,266<\/td> 2,400<\/td> 8,665<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> EBITDA (\u20acm)<\/strong><\/td> 819<\/td> 264<\/td> 1,083<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Adjusted EBIT (\u20acm)<\/strong><\/td> 542<\/td> 159<\/td> 701<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Adjusted EBIT Margin<\/strong><\/td> 8.7%<\/td> 6.6%<\/td> 8.1%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> CFFO (\u20acm)<\/strong><\/td> 648<\/td> 226<\/td> 874<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> FCF (\u20acm)<\/strong><\/td> 489<\/td> (42)<\/td> 447<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Change the path <\/h2>\n\n\n\n