Canal+, the French media conglomerate and new owner of pay-TV giant Multichoice, has committed to saving more than €400 million ($478 million) annually by 2030 to stabilise the combined business. And to reach that figure, Canal+ is gradually trimming spending across content, technology, procurement, and operations.
What triggered the cuts? Over the last two years, MultiChoice lost 2.8 million linear subscribers as households cut spending and global streamers crowded the market. Pay-TV revenues shrank, but the costs didn’t. When Canal+ acquired MultiChoice, it inherited a business with strong reach, but a bigger cost base.
Who’s paying the price? Canal+ says it doesn’t want to raise DStv prices, which is fair considering the cost-of-living, and merger rules make mass layoffs difficult in the short term. So, instead of firing staff or charging subscribers more, it’s cutting around the company.
In October 2025, weeks after the acquisition closed, Canal+ reportedly asked MultiChoice suppliers, including production houses, contractors, and service vendors, for a blanket 20% reduction on invoices. This was a top-down instruction designed to deliver immediate savings without breaching merger rules.
A direct impact on local content: A 20% cut shrinks budgets, lowers production quality, shortens crews, and limits risk-taking. Over time, fewer projects get commissioned, and local content becomes more conservative. Which is ironic because MultiChoice’s strongest asset, local storytelling, is also absorbing the heaviest pressure. This savings technique may balance things up in the longrun. But the cost of this balance is being paid by the ecosystem that made the platform valuable in the first place.
