French pay-TV giant Canal+ has unveiled a $116 million turnaround plan for MultiChoice, the DStv parent it acquired in September 2025, as the African pay-TV operator continues to bleed subscribers and revenue.
A Business in Retreat
MultiChoice had a difficult 2025, with full-year revenues declining 6% to $2.78 billion as its subscriber base slipped from 14.9 million to 14.4 million. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax also declined by 14%, from €185 million in 2024 to €159 million in 2025.
Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot traced the decline to a convergence of pressures: currency devaluation in Nigeria, power outages, cost inflation, and a difficult transition to OTT, epitomised by the expensive failure of Showmax. Compounding the damage, MultiChoice’s own crisis response (cutting subscriber acquisition subsidies and raising prices) accelerated the subscriber exodus rather than reversing it.
The Boost Plan
Canal+ has structured its plan around four strategic pillars: delivering the best content on the African continent, simplifying commercial offers, building a more powerful subscriber acquisition engine, and pursuing group-wide operational excellence.
Content will anchor the strategy. Local programming remains a major focus, with Canal+ producing 10,000 hours of content for its African audiences each year. Sport, particularly football, is central, with Canal+ and MultiChoice, the group already carries the UEFA Champions League, the English Premier League, and LaLiga, alongside regional competitions such as the Premier Soccer League and T20 cricket in South Africa.
On the commercial side, the turnaround plan includes lowering entry costs through equipment subsidies, expanding the distribution network, and recruiting more than 1,000 salespeople across MultiChoice markets.
Cuts Alongside the Investment
The spending comes paired with significant restructuring. Canal+ will initiate a voluntary severance plan at MultiChoice across support functions and launch a restructuring programme at Irdeto, MultiChoice’s technology and cybersecurity subsidiary.
Canal+ also confirmed that discontinuing Showmax accelerated the delivery of cost synergies, now expected to reach €250 million in 2026, up from the €150 million announced in January.
A Cautious Outlook
Despite the investment, Canal+ is temperate about how quickly results will materialise. The group still expects a “modest decrease” in MultiChoice subscribers in 2026, but forecasts that revenue will decline at a slower rate before returning to growth.
CEO Maxime Saada described the shift as moving from a “central heavy organisation to boots-on-the-ground,” acknowledging that redesigning commercial operations across 16 African markets remains a “complex task.”
Markets were unimpressed with the outlook. Canal+ shares fell 23.5% on the London Stock Exchange on the day of the announcement.
Canal+ also confirmed plans to pursue a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in the first half of 2026, a move that would allow South African investors direct access to the combined group’s shares. On a combined basis, the group now counts 42.3 million subscribers and revenues of $10.06 billion.
