Why Canal+ Wants To Acquire Comcast's Stake In Showmax?

Canal+ plans to roll out a “super app” as MultiChoice becomes wholly owned by the company which would combine DStv and Showmax's operations. Even offer content from third party platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.

Although, Canal+ had stated they had no intention of closing Showmax this super app might be their way of gradually phasing out the brand. They aren't pleased with the notion that MultiChoice would launch a platform that would rival with DStv.

Aside from Showmax, the combined company would also be operating DStv Stream, Canal+ app and VIU. They are assessing whether to keep these services separated or merge them hence the super app.

The biggest roadblock to its integration plans would be Comcast's 30% stake in the streamer. Disney had to go back and forth with the company in order to merge with Hulu and Disney+ this is what could await Canal+ in its pursuit for Showmax.

Some outlets had even talked about how Canal+ could potentially sell their stake and I can only assume similar to DStv, the company is optimising for growth. Showmax is the third most used streaming service behind Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, Fabric reports.

As for content, there's a very high possibility that Canal+ will axe and merge Showmax's content slate with that of DStv. They had produced about 4000 hours of African content while MultiChoice had 6000 hours combined they'd have 10,000 hours in a year.

Would Canal+ really need Showmax if they can curate 10,000 hours of content in 20 to 35 languages for DStv alone?