DStv’s New Owners Slash Costs As Canal+ Tightens The Reins

DStv’s new French owners, Canal+, are wasting no time tightening the belt at MultiChoice. The pay-TV giant has reportedly paused payments to suppliers and asked for discounts on existing invoices, sending ripples through South Africa’s broadcasting and production industries.

According to reports, MultiChoice’s procurement head is currently facing hundreds of unpaid invoices as part of a major cost-cutting drive initiated after Canal+ completed its takeover in September.

A New Era Of Cost Control

In a statement to Business Times, MultiChoice confirmed that these moves form part of a broader effort to reduce spending and “increase efficiency” after the merger.

“Managing spend in the business is important to ensure that MultiChoice continues to play a key role in the South African and African broadcasting ecosystem,” the company said, stressing that the goal is to remain sustainable while still meeting commitments to local content and transformation.

Those commitments were crucial in getting the Canal+ deal across the line with South Africa’s Competition Tribunal including promises to source more local productions from historically disadvantaged creators and small businesses.

But now, the Competition Commission says it will investigate whether any of those acquisition conditions have been breached amid supplier payment suspensions.

Canal+ Looks To Turn The Ship Around

Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot has likened the merger’s early days to “opening the engine” of MultiChoice learning how it runs before optimizing it.

And optimization seems urgent. MultiChoice has faced serious financial headwinds in recent years. Between 2023 and 2024, the broadcaster racked up a combined loss of around R7 billion. Although it reported a R2 billion profit in 2025, much of that came from selling a 60% stake in its insurance business to Sanlam, rather than improved core operations.

Revenue remains under strain: operating profit fell from R7.08 billion in 2024 to R4.66 billion in 2025, with subscription income down 11% as the platform lost 1.2 million customers.

The Showmax Gamble

A large chunk of MultiChoice’s woes comes from its streaming venture, Showmax. The platform relaunched in 2024 through a joint venture with Comcast’s NBCUniversal has reportedly cost MultiChoice over R4 billion in development and content expenses in just two years.

Despite reporting strong subscriber growth percentages, Showmax’s actual revenues dropped last year. Bloomberg recently revealed that Canal+ might move to buy out Comcast’s 30% stake, signalling that it still sees potential in the streaming platform but likely under tighter financial discipline.

Mignot hinted at possible restructuring across the group’s digital platforms, saying Canal+ would evaluate whether running multiple streaming technologies is sustainable while competing with global giants like Netflix and Disney+.

Can Canal+ Save MultiChoice?

With global competition heating up and local audiences increasingly turning to cheaper streaming services, Canal+ faces an uphill battle to revive DStv’s relevance.

Mergence Investment Managers’ CIO Peter Takaendesa believes the cuts were inevitable: “The MultiChoice group is in a difficult financial position given the large losses and cash burn from the relaunch of Showmax, as well as pressure on its South African operations.”

In the coming year, the company will need to prove that cost-cutting can coexist with creativity without undermining the South African production industry that helped make DStv a household name.

Because while Canal+ may have “opened the engine,” it now has to keep the machine running and for many in the local industry, that means making sure the people who built it aren’t left behind.

{Source:My Broadband}

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