Canal+ is wasting no time stamping its mark on DStv. Barely a month after completing its acquisition of MultiChoice, the French media giant is already shaping a new strategy, one that blends nostalgia, affordability, and premium European content to reenergise Africa’s biggest pay-TV brand.
MultiChoice’s recent struggles were centred on declining subscriber numbers, financial losses, and mounting competitive and macroeconomic pressures. In the past two financial years, the company lost 2.8 million active linear subscribers, with the 2025 financial year alone seeing a drop of 1.2 million subscribers (8% year-on-year), split evenly between South Africa and the rest of Africa.
The losses stem largely from Africa’s hybrid pay-TV, cost pressures and growing competition in an increasingly crowded streaming market with over 560 services.
A nostalgic reset for DStv’s 30th birthday
From November 7-9 2025, all active DStv decoder users will enjoy an Open Time weekend, granting free access to DStv Premium content as part of the platform’s 30th anniversary.
The campaign brings back household names from South Africa’s television past including Ashley Hayden, Scot Scott, and Doreen Morris. These familiar faces once introduced M-Net’s original Open Time in the 1990s.
“DStv has grown up alongside its viewers,” said Byron du Plessis, CEO, SA PayTV, on Monday “For three decades, we have been part of South Africans’ homes, weekends, and memories.”
MultiChoice will also slash the price of its HD decoders by 30% in retail channels and over 40% via its new DStv online store, starting 1 November. The promotion is clearly aimed at reconnecting lapsed customers and reducing entry barriers amid fierce competition from Netflix, Showmax, and Disney+.
Premium perks and more football
DStv Premium subscribers will receive two additional all-device streams until December, bringing the total to four. The company has also revamped its rewards programme, adding BoxOffice rentals, event invites, celebrity meet-and-greets, and VIP sports experiences.
And to sweeten the deal for Africa’s football-obsessed audience, SuperSport has begun broadcasting French Ligue 1 matches through a new partnership enabled by Canal+. The French top league, featuring clubs like PSG, Marseille, Lyon, and Monaco, will air up to three matches per weekend on SuperSport channels and GOtv.
“Broadcasting a prestigious league such as Ligue 1 only adds to the value our subscribers receive,” said Rendani Ramovha, SuperSport’s director of English sport content.
Content library expansion
“We create about 4,000 hours of African content each year in up to 15 languages,” said David Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa. “Together with MultiChoice’s 6,000 hours, we will deliver 10,000 hours per year across 20–35 languages.”
The goal is to build a catalogue of over 100,000 hours of content within 10–15 years, and to make that content travel through dubbing and rescripting.
Canal+ also plans to launch a super app that merges Canal+, DStv, GOtv, and Showmax content under one login, creating what CEO Maxime Saada calls “a seamless entertainment ecosystem.” The group has hinted at bringing its content aggregator model to Africa, offering discounted bundles with third-party platforms like Netflix, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Paramount+, as it already does in Europe.
