{"id":867665,"date":"2026-07-28T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867665"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T07:31:44","slug":"say-goodbye-to-multichoice-as-you-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/867665\/say-goodbye-to-multichoice-as-you-know-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Say goodbye to Multichoice as you know it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canal+ has started an aggressive turnaround strategy for Multichoice, with the broadcaster seeing its best subscriber acquisition in a decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

French broadcaster Canal+ took control of MultiChoice, the owner of DStv, in a deal worth over R50 billion in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new era has already started with several high-profile changes, including the shutdown of Showmax and the move of content decision-making for the South African market to Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its half-year results for 2026, Canal+ gave further details of Multichoice’s turnaround. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included subscriber acquisition up 40% year over year in Multichoice countries, with June 2026 being the best subscriber acquisition month in South Africa in a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multichoice’s network also expanded, with the number of points of sale increasing by over 15% since March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group reduced equipment prices for new subscribers, lowering the barrier to entry, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that the content offering was strengthened, with long-term rights for the Premier League in South Africa and the Men\u2019s 2027 and Women\u2019s 2029 Rugby World Cups across sub-Saharan Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that there were successful content and marketing initiatives, including the World Cup advertising campaign with actor Idris Elba and the launch of the Novelas+ channel in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production also began on the first major South African film, The Road Home, The Heist of Benin, and the screen adaptation of the highly popular Americanah novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial results <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Looking at the financials, the Multichoice Group’s Adjusted EBIT before exceptional items rose 160% to \u20ac143 million (R2.7 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ said this was mainly due to synergies and a Profit and Loss impact of \u20ac120 million (R2.2 billion), which includes the impact of discontinuing Showmax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Africa, we have grown our combined subscriber base by 7%, and as part of the Multichoice turnaround plan, we reduced entry costs for new subscribers and expanded our sales network,” said Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total Canal+ Group revenue increased by 40% to \u20ac4,287 million (R81.76 billion), primarily reflecting the consolidation of Multichoice Group revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjusted EBIT before exceptional items increased by 68% to \u20ac433 million (R8.26 billion), with a 10.1% margin. The increase primarily reflects the consolidation of Multichoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Canal+ did see its earnings attributable to equity holders of the parent drop from \u20ac70 million (R1.35 billion) to \u20ac29 million (R553 million). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its basic earnings per share dropped from \u20ac0.07 (R1.34) to \u20ac0.03 (R0.57).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ said it remains on track to meet its 2026 targets, including \u20ac250 million (R4.77 billion) of Adjusted EBIT and \u20ac220 million (R4.20 billion) of free cash flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur strong first-half results reflect our strategic progress,” said Saada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Revenue increased by 40% and Adjusted EBIT by 68%, reflecting our increased scale following the acquisition of MultiChoice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We continued to generate very strong free cash flow, benefitting from cash optimisation initiatives and seasonality effects.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results in euro<\/strong>s<\/td>Unaudited H1 2026<\/strong><\/td>H1 2025 Restated <\/strong><\/td>Change (%)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
MultiChoice Group <\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Revenues<\/td>1,184<\/td>1,220<\/td>-2.9%<\/td><\/tr>
Adjusted EBIT (EBITa) before exceptional items<\/td>143<\/td>107<\/td>34.4%<\/td><\/tr>
As a percentage of total consolidated revenues<\/em><\/td>12.1%<\/td>8.7%<\/td><\/td><\/tr>
of which revenues elimination linked to MultiChoice Group<\/td>(24)<\/td>(29)<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canal+ has provided an update on Multichoice’s turnaround strategy, with June 2026 being the best year for South African subscriber numbers in a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":856916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2082006153001603497","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[6633,78,1253,10293],"class_list":["post-867665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-canal","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867665","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=867665"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867706,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867665\/revisions\/867706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}