Showmax Faces Major Overhaul As MultiChoice Admits The Platform Cannot Continue As Is

Showmax is heading toward one of the biggest shake ups in its history, with MultiChoice Group CEO David Mignot confirming that the streaming platform’s current model is not sustainable. For years, Showmax was punted as Africa’s answer to global giants, but the dream has hit a hard financial wall that Canal Plus is no longer willing to overlook.

A Tough Reality Check For Showmax

In a candid interview, Mignot did not soften the blow. He said the platform “cannot continue” as it stands, noting that the business simply is not working. It is the clearest sign yet that Canal Plus, which recently absorbed MultiChoice, is preparing to either remake or replace Showmax entirely.

This does not mean the French-owned group is pulling away from streaming. If anything, Mignot insists the opposite. Canal Plus sees streaming as central to its Africa strategy, but he says the structure and economics of the Showmax venture have reached breaking point.

A Once Promising Platform That Lost Its Way

Showmax launched in 2015 as an early African pioneer in streaming. It was MultiChoice’s answer to the arrival of Netflix, positioned as a hybrid service mixing local productions with licensed international shows.

But the major reboot came in 2023 when MultiChoice partnered with NBCUniversal and Sky. The new Showmax entity promised Peacock technology, global titles and Premier League football. Executives confidently projected one billion US dollars in revenue and tens of millions of subscribers.

That optimistic future never arrived.

The relaunched Showmax 2.0 hit the market in February 2024, expanding across 44 African countries with new branding, apps and pricing tiers. Yet by the close of the 2025 financial year, the service was bleeding money at record levels. Losses surged to nearly five billion rand, dragging down MultiChoice’s own trading profits.

Even after big-name content deals and expensive platform upgrades, Showmax fell far short of its 2025 subscriber and revenue targets. What was pitched as Africa’s next digital growth engine became one of its most costly experiments.

Why The Streaming Dream Fell Apart

Mignot says the real issue is not the Showmax catalogue or app interface. It is the fundamental gap between global streaming models and Africa’s infrastructure reality.

Africa has hundreds of millions of smartphones, but very few consumers can afford to watch hours of streaming video on mobile data. Fibre internet remains scarce, available to only a small fraction of TV-owning households. Without cheap and reliable connectivity, the streaming model becomes difficult to scale on the continent.

Mignot adds that pure mobile-only streaming plans have not succeeded anywhere in the world unless they are bundled with telecom products. Even Showmax’s Premier League mobile plan struggled to gain traction.

Looking Toward A New Strategy

Canal Plus has hinted at a different direction, one that mirrors its approach in France. There, the Canal Plus app acts as an aggregator that brings together Netflix, Paramount, HBO and even Apple content in one place. The strategy banks on convenience and partnerships rather than competing head on with global giants.

Whether Africa will see a Canal Plus style super-app or a completely new platform remains to be revealed. What is clear is that Showmax, as it exists today, is unlikely to survive in its current form.

More concrete details are expected on 11 March when Canal Plus releases its first set of combined financial results since completing the MultiChoice acquisition.

For South African audiences who grew up with DStv and later embraced Showmax as the local alternative to international streamers, the coming months could redefine what homegrown streaming looks like.

What emerges next may be very different from the Showmax that tried to go global with African ambition but hit the limits of the continent’s connectivity.

{Source:Tech Central}

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