There's been many questions as to how Canal+ will align MultiChoice's assets and below is what we believe could be the final outcome:
StudioCanal
As the name implies, StudioCanal is a French based film production and distribution company that currently owns the third largest film library in the world. This is where ROK Studios resided after it was acquired in 2019 with MultiChoice Studios to follow.
Interesting enough, StudioCanal also offers subsidiaries of the same name within Austria, Germany and the UK. If I had to guess StudioCanal Africa could be on the final piece of this puzzle.
MultiChoice Studios resides within 22 million households while StudioCanal resides within 8 million. Combining this would make it an African powerhouse and probably leading Africa to have its own subsidiary within the French company.
StudioCanal is also home to the linear ROK channel and will likely be where Mzansi Magic, Africa Magic and KykNET reside.
M7 Group/Canal+ Luxembourg S.à.r.l.
M7 Group is a Luxembourg based and also one of Europe's leading pay-tv operators offering culture and language specific packages in eight countries including Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
As we've seen in recent years, Canal+ has been buying out companies as a means to expand. MultiChoice's DStv and GOtv packages would serve as distant relatives and also another means to get the M7 Group services into Africa.
Metropolitan France/Canal+ Premium
This section is dedicated to their linear offering which consist of self titled brands part of which reside in Africa like Canal+ Discover and Canal+ Sport. Even SPI International brands like FilmBox Africa and even FightBox have a dedicated section in this category.
In terms of content, M-Net and SuperSport will be handled under this section. They are expected to be remain in operation but as far as branding is concerned that is yet to be determined.
M-Net had been pivoting toward streaming in recent years by reducing their movie offering even shutting down their secondary network Me. If you look at it, M-Net could get a proper send-off or at least by name ideally it could rebrand to Canal+ Premium/Canal+ First.
Thereafter, M-Net could remain as a trademark for a collection of local channels like Pearl Magic, Africa Magic and Maisha Magic. Never got the sense in having M-Net as a singular brand and also for a collection of locally curated channels.
If the plan was to incorporate the Canal+ trademark on sports ideally Canal+ SuperSport would make a lot of sense. This is something that they could apply temporarily and overtime simplify the name to Canal+ Sport to get viewers accustomed.
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