How SuperSport Is Impacted By The Canal+ Acquisition?

Not long ago, Canal+ SA had completed its acquisition of South African pay-TV operator MultiChoice Group, securing a 48.2% stake in the company.

The transaction, which Canal+ described as its largest ever, creates a global media and entertainment group serving more than 40 million subscribers across nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia, with approximately 17,000 employees.

Since the merger, there had been a great deal of concern amongst the media regarding SuperSport and Canal+ was quick to clarify that the deal wouldn't lead it to become Canal+ Sport. Of course, they've been talking about synergies in the last couple of months.

In Francophone Africa, MultiChoice has been distributing an add on service to Canal+ Afrique consumers known as DStv English Plus. It offers Premier League and La Liga for instance I'm assuming those are the type of synergies they're referring.

Before the merger, Canal+ didn't have much sporting rights for consumers in Africa as seen in Europe and France so they'd license content from rivals such as Bein Sports and DAZN. Under this merger, SuperSport will most definitely need to align with its French equivalent Canal+ Sport.

If Canal+ Afrique distributed Ligue 1 through its deal with Bein Sports rather than SuperSport launching a dedicated channel it also distributes Bein Sports to prevent any overlaps or duplication. Same goes for doccies like Chasing The Sun which will likely get dubbed rather than retooled into a separate series.

Some revaluation is underway for Showmax in which MultiChoice revamped last year in partnership with NBCUniversal. This could affect Showmax Premier League offering as it would rival with DStv Stream's extensive offering due to its low rates.

MultiChoice is looking to possibly offer SuperSport as a standalone service on DStv combined with Showmax this could as well be Football based package with separate offering for cricket, rugby and tennis. Maybe they could take a page from Ultraview by offering PSL and La Liga separately. 

Finally with a merger there's always potential drawbacks as MultiChoice has lost over a million subscribers in the last year. The acquiring company makes cuts think of the Ethiopian Premier League the losses could affect more niche African leagues.