Manny Ita-
Canal+ has announced plans to invest about €100 million to revive growth at African pay-television operator MultiChoice Group, the parent company of DStv and GOtv, following a decline in subscribers and revenue.
The French media company disclosed the investment plan in its 2025 financial results released on Wednesday, months after completing the acquisition of MultiChoice.
According to the financial report, MultiChoice ended 2025 with 14.4 million subscribers, down from 14.9 million recorded a year earlier, reflecting pressures in several operating markets across Africa.
The company also reported that revenue fell by six per cent to €2.4 billion, while adjusted earnings before interest and tax declined by 14 per cent to €159 million.
“After experiencing impressive growth from 2010 to 2023, MultiChoice has faced challenges since the combined effects of macro-economic factors (e.g., currency devaluation in Nigeria, power cuts), a difficult transition to OTT with the expensive failure of Showmax, and strong inflation across most cost items, especially content, negatively impacted its profitability,” Canal+ said in the financial report.
The company noted that MultiChoice had implemented short-term measures to stabilise operations, including reducing subscriber acquisition subsidies and increasing prices, but said those actions also affected the subscriber base and further pressured profitability.
“MultiChoice is facing a €140 million negative impact in 2026 from inertia of subscriber base driving decrease in revenues, and from cost inflation.
“To restart subscriber growth, CANAL+ will launch a growth boost plan by investing around €100 million,” the company said.
As part of the strategy to expand its subscriber base, Canal+ said it plans to recruit more than 1,000 sales staff across African markets, a move aimed at shifting MultiChoice toward a more sales-driven model to accelerate customer acquisition.
The development follows Canal+’s full acquisition of MultiChoice in September last year in a deal valued at about $3 billion, a transaction that significantly expanded the French broadcaster’s footprint in global pay-television markets.
With the takeover completed, the combined group now serves more than 40 million subscribers across nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia and employs about 17,000 people.
Canal+ said it will present a detailed integration strategy outlining operational synergies and growth plans during a strategic update expected in the first quarter of 2026.
The announcement also comes after reports that Canal+ plans to discontinue Showmax, a streaming service launched in 2015 by MultiChoice to compete with global platforms such as Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
Showmax struggled to achieve profitability, with MultiChoice previously reporting that trading losses from the platform increased by 88 per cent while revenue generated by the service declined before the Canal+ takeover.
