MultiChoice is in the midst of a possible takeover from French company Canal+ after garnering almost 37% hold of the company. With South African laws forcing them to obtain remaining shares and get approval from legislation or risk termination.
If this deal goes forward, Canal+ and MultiChoice would be merging their stables with the acquirer Canal+ making some budget cuts. This is a norm when a company undergoes a takeover or merger but how much more turmoil can consumers put up with.
As discussed already, Canal+ assets clash with MultiChoice's current offering as the French company has bought up various properties in Africa. This includes ROK Studios who own the streaming service iROKO TV and linear ROK channels on DStv.
They're basically rivaling with M-Net's Africa Magic and unless Canal+ is looking to sell or restructure these brands they can't just "co-exist". Either ROK Studios will merge into Africa Magic or both will be unified to form another brand in the African market.
Same goes for their streaming services iROKO TV and MyCanal Afrique from Canal+ with DStv Stream and Showmax from MultiChoice. Unless there's no monthly fees attached, iROKO TV could be structured as a Showmax type streamer for Africa Magic.
Lastly, there's pay-tv platforms Canal+ offers to consumers within Francophone Africa while MultiChoice caters to English speaking countries. These serve as the most complicated of the pillar as Canal+ Afrique and DStv would be subjected to a merger.
These include a range of entertainment channels from both parties some of which will likely not form part of the merged packages. Canal+ has its own entertainment they can't just pay for duplicates unless it has appeal or originality in the mix.
Canal+ has stated that merging their assets with MultiChoice would give them a competitive advantage against NBCUniversal and Disney. These cutbacks are likely to hit all corners of DStv.
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