Canal+'s MultiChoice Expected To Finalize Takeover By October 2025

MultiChoice Group Ltd and Canal+ SA on Tuesday said they are on track to clear all conditions in a deal that will see the French group take over the South African entertainment company.

Back on March 4, the two companies said they had extended the long stop date to October 8 from April 8 to fulfill all the conditions facing the proposed offer.

The proposed takeover is subject to clearance from South African competition authorities and other regulatory approvals continues.

Canal+ early in June last year improved its offer for MultiChoice to R 125 per share, a 67% premium to MultiChoice’s closing price of R 75 before Canal+ first approached MultiChoice investors on February 1 last year. The French group formally made the offer early in April.

Canal+’s mandatory offer to MultiChoice shareholders opened early in June last year and closes on April 25 this year.

In February, MultiChoice and Canal+ said they had concluded their discussions over the structure of MultiChoice after the takeover.

This proposed structure ensures that the MultiChoice acquisition complies with foreign control regulations and maintain MultiChoice’s broad-based black economic empowerment credentials, the two companies said then.

In terms of the proposed structure, MultiChoice will be restructured so that the current holder of the broadcasting licence in South Africa and the entity which contracts with South African subscribers, MultiChoice (Pty) Ltd or Licence Co, will be carved out of the MultiChoice group and will become an independent entity.

The remainder of MultiChoice’s video entertainment assets will remain part of the MultiChoice Group.

Licence Co will continue to hold the subscription broadcasting licence in South Africa,and it will continue to contract with MultiChoice’s South African subscribers.

DStv, Openview And StarSat Channel Changes From 01 January 2024 To 31 March 2025

Due to some restructuring that we had discussed in 2024, we opted to make some minor adjustments on how content is maintained on the website. Below we have summarised events that occurred in 2024 and trust me when I say that it was one of gruesome years for publishers such as myself but we strive to continue operating at minimum capacity.

Openview

Following the rollout of Ultraview, the pay-tv extension of Openview had lost two channels in under a year, OUTtv and FUSE. These were youth oriented channels priced at R75p/m that eMedia Investments had since integrated with the rest of eVOD's offering leaving the Bollywood channels.

As we've stated in 2024, eMedia Investments hadn't disclosed how many subscribers Ultraview accumulated but it is believed to low and also what prompted the closure of EDGE. Also to note was the lack of additions in this financial period with Sporty TV being the first new channel in over two years.

Other developments to have occured involved one of their existing offerings People's Weather that was axed from DStv and since became People's Planet.

StarSat 

After operating illegally for over a year, StarSat was forcibly shuttered in South Africa following a raid by ICASA and law enforcement which affected several channels in other African countries. On Digital Media which held the broadcasting license has since been liquidated with no further action by both parties.

Consumers who were owed money were encouraged to contact On Digital Media if they wished to collect their bounty.

Similar to Openview, the financial period hasn't been the most productive of years with the rise in streaming. The only addition for the company during its lifespan at the time was ST Movies which if I can recall was ousted from the platform for unknown reasons and revived following the removal of TNT.

DStv

2024 has proven to be treacherous year for DStv amidst it's takeover by Canal+ had ousted 11 channels including People's Weather, Ginx TV, B4U Movies, Africa Magic Urban, One Freestate Televisual, DW, NWTV, PBS Kids, Emmanuel TV, Me and 1Max (formerly 1Magic).

As for additions, there was Arise News after being made exclusive to DStv consumers in the West and Eastern parts of Africa expanded to Southern Africa.

Other developments included the expansions of services SuperSport Action (Compact), CBS Justice (Compact), Comedy Central (Family), HGTV (Family), Nicktoons (Access) and WildEarth (Easyview). Readers are advised to view the summary below for the full list of channels.

Summary 

New channels/rebrands: 

• Arise News (DStv)

• 1Max (DStv, closed)

• Sporty TV (Openview)

• People's Planet (Openview)

• ST Movies (StarSat)

Expansions (on DStv):

 

• Arise News (Southern Africa)

• SuperSport Action (Compact+ to Compact)

• Africa Magic Showcase (Compact+ to Compact)

• CBS Justice (Compact+ to Compact)

• History (Compact+ to Compact)

• Curiosity (Compact+ to Compact)

• Nickelodeon (Compact+ to Compact)

• Nick Jr. (Compact+ to Compact)

• HGTV (Compact to Family)

• Disney Channel (Compact to Family)

• Comedy Central (Compact to Family)

• ROK (Compact to Access)

• Zee World (Family to Access)

• Nicktoons (Family to Access)

• SuperSport La Liga (Family to Access)

• WildEarth (Access to Easyview) 

• SuperSport Schools (Access to Easyview)

Closures (Openview in bold): 

• PBS Kids

• One Freestate Televisual

• NWTV

• 1Max (formerly 1Magic)

• Me

• WildEarth

• Emmanuel TV

• B4U Movies

• Ginx TV

• DW

• People's Weather (now People's Planet)

• Africa Magic Urban

• OUTtv 

• FUSE 

New Channel Alert (Rumour): Third ROK Channel Supposedly In Early Development On DStv

MultiChoice is currently undergoing a takeover bid by ROK owners Canal+ with local legislation as the two look to tie the knot by October 2025. This comes after both parties were looking to finalize the transaction later in the week with Africa Magic and ROK folded under the same umbrella.

ROK has been described as the leading broadcaster for Nollywood films and series prior to Canal+'s growing interest in MultiChoice distributed the brand amongst DStv and Canal+ platforms. Formerly owned by iROKO TV, it spawned 2 regional channels one seen in the UK another in the Eastern and Western parts of Africa.

It appears that MultiChoice will be duplicating this offering soon as they've begun work on a third TV channel with ROK's recent blockbusters Miss Cole and Service Agreement. We can only assume with minimal offering that this channel is in early development.

With no series in site, it could as well be a complimentary offering to Africa Magic Epic which is devoted to primarily movies. In general, we're not expecting anything newsworthy from this and it will be weird if it did become a movie channel considering how much of is that is already on ROK.

MultiChoice has been streamlining it's offering over the years which led the cancellation of Africa Magic Urban and mergers between BBC First and BBC Brit. The latter is being optimised for Netflix and MultiChoice is hoping with the Comcast deal that Showmax reaches that scale in Africa.

Estimated guess is that the newcomer possibly ROK Movies will be placed on channels 140-159 which is battered with other repeat tailored channels such as Magic Showcase, KykNet Lekker and Moja 9.9. 

With the MultiChoice/Canal+ deal underway, it's a safe bet to predict that ROK and Africa Magic won't form part of some major overhaul if the deal were to be approved. However there could as well be some restructuring to their regional offering particularly for brands like Africa Magic Hausa which could be seen with ROK content.

MultiChoice Africa Might Be Renaming SuperSport Football Plus To Football Plus Canal+

MultiChoice is currently undergoing a takeover bid by Canal+ with local legislation as the two look to tie the knot by October 2025. This comes after both parties were looking to finalize the transaction later in the week with SuperSport that would inevitably become a division of Canal+ Sport.

During the day, a DStv consumer outside South Africa had spotted a channel known as Football Plus Canal+ on their media portal. Initially, we thought this could as well be a pop-up channel of some sort on channels 199 but digging further into the lineup it looks like it will be replacing SuperSport Football Plus.

Football Plus Canal+ has a duplicate schedule and to be frank there's no chance that Canal+ can duplicate this for French audience in Africa. Canal+ Afrique doesn't have that much sporting rights for its consumers and the ones obtained by SuperSport can't be duplicated or at least not in French.

Canal+ through its stake in MultiChoice distributes Premier League and La Liga as part of an Add-On, DStv English Plus. Maybe Football Plus Canal+ will form part of the offering if not replace the latter but from what I recall the SuperSport feeds seen within Francophone Africa are the same ones on DStv.

SuperSport Football Plus could become the first channel amongst SuperSport to get the corporate treatment - Canal+. If anything, it does lead us to wonder whether the rest of SuperSport's offering will fold under the Canal+ Sport branding.

MultiChoice will effectively belong to a French company if the transaction gets approved so local content and sports would be structured to their liking. Let's remember, Canal+ wants to expand StudioCanal's operations through MultiChoice which could lead to the dying down of the M-Net trademark.

MultiChoice is viewing this transaction is a bid to bulk up against Netflix and one way that could all play out is having some of their assets getting the Canal+ imprint. When Disney acquired FOX, some of its assets did get the corporate imprint same with Warner whose factual offering folded under Discovery.

From MultiChoice To Unsatisfied Consumers: "The Canal+ Deal Makes Them Stronger Against Declining DStv Consumers"

As readers already heard, MultiChoice offloaded various TV channels to lower bouquets including Africa Magic Showcase, HGTV and Disney Channel from 1st April. With MultiChoice looking to adjust prices in the month of May, this is their way of trying to retain the fleet of DStv consumers.

Unsatisfied consumers will look at the upcoming increase as a means to cut their losses while remaining will hope to see value with these arrivals. In the end, the top paying consumer is the one who suffers as they hope for a quality service but instead watches content get reduced.

MultiChoice is helpless in these regards as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are undergoing restructures. This has left Comedy Central in a decapitated position and when this audience no longer sees value in a particular station corporate will burden it to another flock.

Shareholders are looking to cash on their transaction with Canal+ which is currently under assessment with the Competition Commission and ICASA. While some see MultiChoice's financial position as a blessing in disguise these flock don't care the slightest about people's opinion.

If the deal is approved, shareholders can take their money and run with Canal+ looking to make a debut on the JSE give these same people an open window to MultiChoice. Similar to Netflix, Canal+ makes its revenue in other parts of world mainly Europe and France which helps it tackle those losses made by MultiChoice.

Under new management, MultiChoice is expected to undergo further restructure aside from LicenceCo which tackles the DStv service. StudioCanal is looking to expand its services to Africa with Huntington filmed in Cape Town with another South African production set to be announced soon.

Although, MultiChoice and Canal+ will boast that they'll be no job cuts and this transaction will help it compete with Netflix, these are short term goals. As MultiChoice continues to bleed subscribers and Phuthuma Nathi shareholders get reduced dividend they'll most definitely makes cuts.

Last year, Canal+ was interviewed by journalist and made it clear that content allocation is their main focus for the company. NMIS Insurance Services may not be the only company to undergo restructure but Moment could as well get discontinued with Namola shipped off to another company.

Again once the deal is done, soon to be former MultiChoice shareholders won't make how this will affect DStv their business.