Is KykNET NOU! And VIA In Trouble???

Since Canal+ has taken over MultiChoice there's been a lot of fear within the industry of what comes next. As the French giant has company making cuts which include the discontinuation of Winter Olympics on SuperSport with HBO on M-Net.

Several producers and other people delivering services at MultiChoice have talked about contracts not being renewed as yet or waiting on payments for certain services at the company.

Although Canal+ had committed to securing content from MultiChoice markets and that reduction of local content wouldn't fit in the company's overall structure. That doesn't mean there won't be cuts or reduction in salaries.

Take for instance Showmax, MultiChoice had lost billions after relaunching it as a joint venture with NBCUniversal. Now plans are set in motion to consolidate this onto DStv Stream and later Canal+.

Now there's reports that they're targeting local commentators figure indicators that nothing is safe which brings a couple of channels into question, KykNET NOU! and VIA.

Canal+ was asked what is going to happen with M-Net, Africa Magic and KykNET, and responded to say "we love SuperSport". Further indication that tough times could be ahead for DStv which is where KykNET NOU! and VIA come in.

Both of these are Afrikaans channels, KykNET NOU! does the music while VIU handles the foodies, fashion and home decor. It offers shows like

Similar to the local commentary and Showmax, if Canal+ feels there's not much people tuning into these channels. They could look to scaling back on its offering and redirecting these efforts onto KykNET and we have our reasons.

A majority of KykNET viewers likely have access to Netflix, Spotify and Disney+. In retrospect, this could as well reduce their dependency on these brands.

If we had to look at past instances, there was StarSat who at one time offered OnseTV and InPas TV before shutting those down. Then there's 7de Laan on SABC 2 and Nuusdag Om 8pm on eExtra which also got the boot.

KykNET NOU and VIA are niche brands and compared to KykNET and it's other sister channels. The viewership on these channels are a lot smaller but one has to hope amidst this cord cutting that somehow Canal+ can still reciprocate the costs.

If not these channels could join Showmax and form part of Canal+'s turnaround plan at MultiChoice.