How DStv Will Be Impacted By Canal+?

Canal+ is currently finalizing a new structure after obtaining a 45% stake of MultiChoice making them one of company's largest shareholders. After their initial bid of R29 billion was turned down earlier in the year the French broadcaster had up it's bid to R32 billion with an interim board deeming it "fair and reasonable".

Something that various readers had asked me in the past months is how this impacts DStv and whether they could be any content changes once the takeover concludes by April 2025. Although, there's not much details about their plans with that platform even GOtv there is some differences between MultiChoice and Canal+.

Firstly, MultiChoice is content oriented this was seen when eNCA made less money than the former Gupta owned news channel ANN7 despite having more viewers. Then there's BBC Lifestyle, Food Network and HGTV all of which come with their own set of content for viewers.

Then you turn to Canal+ which operates in bulk or in large quantities as seen with Canal+ Sport and Foot alongside international brands Eurosport and DAZN. If you turn to their services within Africa similar to France and Europe, a large portion of their international offering isn't American so neither MultiChoice or viewers are familiar with the content there. 

There's FilmBox which is based in Netherlands alongside DocuBox followed by India's TravelXP, Asia's A+ Kids and Belgium's W-Sport.

Imagine once this takeover concludes what could as well transpire is some of these efforts Canal+ has built within Europe and France ends up being splashed onto DStv. Before any of that could enter fruition, Canal+ will look into making MultiChoice close a couple of channels as a means to increase profitability and reduce redundancy.

Take for instance the movie offering which has the most repeats amongst channels what MultiChoice could do here is focus more on IPs and that would be TNT, Studio Universal and Movie Room. With M-Net streamlining, they could as well scrap their remaining movie offering from M-Net Movies particularly M-Net Movies 3 and 4.

Then there's CineMagic and Magic Showcase with them being constrained to Easyview consumers in South Africa and Access and GOtv Lite consumers in other countries there's probably not much viewers meaning little to no income is being generated so what could transpire is a possible merger of this offering to enhance viewer's experience.

How MultiChoice Benefits From The Hostile Takeover By Canal+?

Canal+ has managed to have upped its stake in MultiChoice to 45% home to brands like SuperSport, M-Net, DStv and GOtv which is awaiting regulatory approval. With both parties that will be spending the rest of 2024 looking to assess a possible structure as Canal+ being a foreigner has to navigate the restrictions to foreign ownership.

The likely scenario here is that MultiChoice Africa will be managed by Canal+ with existing shareholders voting rights being reduced as they will be in charge of the services within South Africa. Residing within Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria, MultiChoice Africa offers brands such as Africa Magic, Zambezi Magic and Maisha Magic.

With Canal+ obtaining a 20% stake in MultiChoice South Africa which is the maximum amount a foreigner can get of a local company. It's possible that shareholders may look to increase Canal+ influence over MultiChoice Africa by 80% or at least on the content side.

Canal+ had outlined that they don't believe in the diversity of MultiChoice which consists of brands like Namola, Irdeto and BetKing. So with them handling the content portion of MultiChoice could free up some potential income for other shareholders to manage those other fields MultiChoice is hoping to cash on e.g. Showmax.

MultiChoice had been pumping funds onto SuperSport and with Canal+ still viewing linear TV as an asset we could see them manage part of the expenses giving them as much ownership of the brand. This was likely the most stressful of subsidiaries by MultiChoice and Canal+ would save them money. 

If anything, the burning question is how many of these subsidiaries MultiChoice will continue to operate under their wing cause with them complying with BEE those partners may not want to support some of these ventures leading some to potentially close if not getting sold off.

Zee Zonke To Debut First Ever Zulu Dubbed Bollywood Film "Darlings" In October

Following the channel's rollout in 2023, Zee Zonke had proved to be a popular addition with DStv consumers after accumulating over 200,000 viewers. The parent company Zee Entertainment Enterprises distributes various other channels within the African market including Zee World and Zee Alem on DStv with Zee Family and Zee One on Openview.

Now the channel is gearing up to boost its primetime offering with the addition of Bollywood movies with Darlings opening up the block on Sunday 27 October at 18:00.

In the film we are introduced to Badru and Hamza as a cutesy couple, probably in their early 20s, thinking of marrying each other. Three years later, we see the couple is still in love until Hamza finds two small pebbles in his food. Here, the act of domestic violence is hinted at for the first time. Hamza is an unhinged character who physically abuses his wife after getting drunk. 

Badru is more or less done with Hamza, but because of the ideology of marriage and Hamza’s coercion is forced to stay with him. There are some external plot lines alongside this established structure: the character Zulfi, who is perceived as the lover of Badru, the insights of marriage and men from Shamshu. 

Through a lot of shenanigans and dark comedy, the goal is achieved with Hamza being accidentally killed by an oncoming train and Badru returning to the same theatre she waited for Hamza in the starting. The difference is that this time she watches the movie alone, unbothered by the fact that she is alone and happier in the fact that she is an individual.

Alia Bhatt is cast in the film as Badrunissa "Badru" Ansari–Sheikh alongside Shefali Shah as Shamshunissa "Shamshu" Ansari, Vijay Varma as Hamza Sheikh, Roshan Mathew as Zulfi and Vikram Pratap as Abdul.

MultiChoice, NBCUniversal Invest R2.8 Billion Into Showmax

MultiChoice video streaming platform Showmax has received equity funding of $164 million (R2.8 billion), as it looks to take on international video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix and Disney+.

This, after in March last year, MultiChoice entered into an agreement with Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal and Sky, to form a partnership for purposes of driving Showmax to become the “leading streaming service in Africa”.

Comcast, through its subsidiary NBCUniversal, acquired a 30% equity stake in Showmax, and provides ongoing support through the licensing of its Peacock platform and content from NBCUniversal, Universal Pictures, Peacock and Sky.

MultiChoice, through its wholly-owned subsidiary MultiChoice Group Holdings, and Comcast, through NBCUniversal, are providing funding to Showmax (only as and when Showmax’s board determines) during its investment phase.

According to MultiChoice, this is contributed in proportion to the companies’ respective shareholdings and they will share profits on the same basis in future.

It adds that equity funding is provided as required (either monthly or at other intervals) depending on Showmax’s working capital requirements and near-term budget (as determined by Showmax’s board) subject to a maximum capped amount.

As at 31 March 2024, MultiChoice Group and NBCUniversal provided, in the aggregate, $120 million (R2 billion) in equity funding to Showmax, each in proportion of their respective shareholdings.

“Since 1 April 2024 until the date of this announcement, MultiChoice Group and NBCUniversal provided, in the aggregate, $164 million (R2.8 billion) in equity funding to Showmax, each in proportion of their respective shareholdings,” says the JSE-listed video entertainment company.

Faced with declining subscriber numbers in the traditional pay-TV space, MultiChoice is pinning its hopes on streaming platforms Showmax and DStv Stream.

The company’s latest financial results show overall active subscribers declined by 9%.

According to the company, this was mainly due to a 13% decline in the “rest of Africa” business, with Nigeria, Angola and Zambia most affected, while the South African business was more resilient, declining by only 5%.

The results come as French-based media giant Canal+ is looking to take over the South African firm in a R30 billion deal.

Over the years, MultiChoice’s subscriber numbers have reduced amid pressure from global streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

To boost its streaming offerings, MultiChoice relaunched Showmax, stating its intention of becoming the leading platform in Africa.

However, research projections show the new Showmax will become Africa’s second-biggest video streaming service in five years.

According to a report by Digital TV Research, Sub-Saharan Africa will have 16 million paying subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions by 2029, up from seven million at the end of 2023.

It notes Netflix will remain the SVOD market leader, with 6.9 million subscribers by 2029, and Showmax will be the second-largest platform, with 3.7 million paying subscribers.

MultiChoice recently enhanced its DStv Stream app

 by adding personalisation features, which it believes will draw more viewers to the platform.

Recommendations To Those Using StarSat In South Africa

StarSat is a satellite based pay-tv service that StarTimes managed to acquire a 20% stake for those using their services in South Africa with On Digital Media being majority shareholder. As reported sometime ago, the pay-tv operator has been operating illegally in South Africa for over a year and now ICASA is looking to action.

Since StarSat's inception into the market, they've managed to accumulate over half a million subscribers in South Africa alone which is baffling considering how long Openview had been operational in the market. They also have over 6000 workers whose jobs are as well at stake as they roam around their offices aimlessly.

StarSat is insuring consumers that they won't shut down by all means and it's comes as somewhat of a shock that they've been operating without a license for this long. But there's no guarantees that they'll be able to keep up with their word as ICASA could as well look to have their signals getting shut off making it difficult for them to offer their services.

Although employees may say they will continue to sell and distribute StarSat in South Africa what could happen overtime is that Warner Bros. Discovery, The Walt Disney Company and various other parties may look to having their channels revoked or at least for the audiences in South Africa leaving only the local channels curated by the company.

To put matters into simple terms, don't risk what little you have left on these guys as there's no guarantee how long they could remain active and if ESPN and National Geographic will remain intact during this period. Have a Plan B which could be Openview or DStv just until the dust settles between ICASA and StarSat.

Should it shut down it will have a difficult time trying to recover that lost income and consumer base even the workforce would be constraint as the pay-tv market has been under siege in recent years. So much so that they might as well look into closing their services or deem themselves unfit for the South African market.

In the end, the one who would be most affected is the license holder On Digital Media as StarTimes has a local following in other parts of Africa which amounts to over 10 million subscribers.