Canal+'s MultiChoice Presents Very Little Competition Concerns, Says Tribunal

The Competition Competition said on Thursday that the planned acquisition of MultiChoice Group (MCG) by the French television powerhouse Canal+ has revealed minimal overlaps between the two entities, given their respective market sizes.

However, the proposed merger will necessitate a fundamental restructuring to separate the licensed broadcasting unit, which will transition into a standalone entity named LicenseCo.

MultiChoice has been struggling to retain subscribers for its pay television platform, DStv, ven as it seeks to expand its digital footprint through investments in online streaming service Showmax. 

The acquisition by Canal+ is positioned as a revitalising force for MultiChoice, pending final approvals from regulatory bodies and competition authorities.

The Tribunal on Thursday heard from the Competition Commission that there were overlaps between MultiChoice and Canal+. These overlaps include included horizontal and vertical considerations.

During the proceedings at the Tribunal, both companies have horizontal overlaps as they both supply video content for broadcasting purposes. 

It was the Competition Commission’s findings that MultiChoice acquires and aggregate broadcasting content across sports and movies under its subsidiaries M-Net and SuperSport while Canal+ also has similar offerings although at a small scale.

“Vertically, Canal+ currently provides content to LicenseCo, which is part of MCG while its affiliated entity, Havas Media, purchases advertising space from MCG’s sales house, Digital Media Sales (DMS),” said Ndivhuwo Moleya, senior analyst for mergers and acquisitions at the Competition Commission.

The Commission said these links presented potential vertical overlaps in content and advertising supply chains, but it deemed them as insignificant.

“Looking at the number of channels that Canal+ supplies, in particular on the DStv platform, we understand it's not more than three. The upshot of that is that from a horizontal perspective, (the overlap) is very small because of the smallness of the content that Canal+ provides downstream,” said Moleya.

According to the Competition Commission, the broader content market includes numerous global suppliers, indicating low risk of anti-competitive effects.

Moreover, overlaps within the upstream advertising market, regarding the the sale of advertising slots on broadcast platforms and the downstream advertising market involving agencies such as Havas Media that purchase advertising on behalf of clients, were also determined to be less significant.

In arriving at the determination, regulators adopted a “worst-case scenario” to ensure all potential competition concerns were examined.

The merger between MCG and Canal+ will be subject to a resutructuring exercise to ring-fence MultiChoice’s licensed broadcasting entity, MultiChoice (Pty) Ltd. This unit will be hived off into a standalone company, LicenseCo, in line with local regulatory requirements.

After settlement of the merger, the combined group will have no interest or control in LicenseCo. However, details of the this carve-out structure for LicenseCo remain confidential.

LicenceCo will be majority-owned by previously disadvantaged and black economic empowerment companies, with MCG holding a 49% interest. 

Canal+ has, however, previously said that it was still engaging with Phuthuma Nathi, which has been earmarked to hold a 27% interest in LicenceCo, although the board has already given its support for the transaction.

Black-owned and managed companies, Identity Partners Itai Consortium owned by Sipho Maseko And Sonja De Bruyn, and Afrifund Consortium have also been roped into LicenceCo, bringing “highly experienced leaders” with “great commercial and industry” knowledge.

“This seems a clever way to get around foreign ownership rules assuming they've had at least informal approval from Independent Communications Authority of SA (or discussions) and now deal can go ahead,” market analyst Simon Brown previously told Business Report.

The CEO of Canal+, Maxime Saada, said earlier this year that the acquisition of MultiChoice was an “opportunity to create a unique global media company, with a strong presence across Africa with the scale, expertise, and creativity to compete and partner with the largest players” within the media and entertainment sectors.

The article was originally published by IOL

Canal+'s MultiChoice Offers To Invest An Additional R2 Billion Within The Merger Deal

Canal+ and MultiChoice have committed an additional R2 billion to public interest initiatives in South Africa, as part of a growing list of undertakings tied to their proposed R30 billion deal.

The funds cater for commitments that include increased support for local content production, supplier development, and the establishment of a university to develop media and broadcasting talent.

The merger, if finalised, would create a media giant with a footprint across Africa and a combined subscriber base of 41 million.

French media group Canal+ currently owns a significant stake in MultiChoice and last year offered to buy out the remaining shares, valuing the company at R55 billion. MultiChoice’s current market capitalisation is R51 billion.

Heather Irvine, acting on behalf of Canal+, confirmed that the group’s corporate and social investment offer had been formalised. “The proposed contribution towards corporate and social investment is now a firm number,” said Irvine.

Printing and Imaging

Canal+, MultiChoice sweeten merger deal with R2bn pledge

Nicola Mawson

By Nicola Mawson

Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2025

MultiChoice headquarters in Randburg, Johannesburg.

MultiChoice headquarters in Randburg, Johannesburg.

Canal+ and MultiChoice have committed an additional R2 billion to public interest initiatives in South Africa, as part of a growing list of undertakings tied to their proposed R30 billion deal.

The funds cater for commitments that include increased support for local content production, supplier development, and the establishment of a university to develop media and broadcasting talent.

The merger, if finalised, would create a media giant with a footprint across Africa and a combined subscriber base of 41 million.

French media group Canal+ currently owns a significant stake in MultiChoice and last year offered to buy out the remaining shares, valuing the company at R55 billion. MultiChoice’s current market capitalisation is R51 billion.

Heather Irvine, acting on behalf of Canal+, confirmed that the group’s corporate and social investment offer had been formalised. “The proposed contribution towards corporate and social investment is now a firm number,” said Irvine.

See also

MultiChoice, Canal+ merger deal passes CompCom hurdle

MultiChoice to restructure after Canal+ takeover deal

“The DTIC [Department of Trade, Industry and Competition] has agreed that is an appropriate commitment for us to make.”

Irvine noted that Canal+ has increased its overall public interest commitment by R2 billion, taking the three-year total from R26 billion to R28 billion. This package spans areas such as local content, news diversity, and support for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), benchmarked against MultiChoice’s historical spend.

In its 2025 financial year, MultiChoice reported R12.8 billion in local procurement, of which R3.9 billion was directed to SMMEs. The parties indicated that spending on historically disadvantaged producers (HDPs) would be maintained, although they cautioned against making this a binding condition due to the fast-evolving nature of the industry.

MultiChoice general manager of regulatory affairs Lara Kantor said regulatory frameworks require transparency in the commissioning of programming, and how MultiChoice deals with unsolicited scripts is detailed on its website.

“So, it just gives independent producers a lay of the land. And then it also requires that we report against that protocol within the year, so that we say, these are how many producers we engaged with over the last year,” Kantor explained. She added that this would include HDPs.

Kantor also outlined MultiChoice’s framework for working with independent producers, which includes aspects such as funding models and intellectual property ownership depending on which company made which contribution.

David Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa, said the French broadcaster has similar frameworks in place across its operations in 25 African countries. However, he cautioned against regulating only one party in a highly-competitive sector. This type of arrangement is a commercial one, he said, adding that imposing such conditions solely on the merged entity could “create difficulties and potentially risks creating an unlevel playing field”.

On Thursday, MultiChoice warned that traditional broadcasters face increasing threats from streaming services, social media and piracy.

In a presentation, it noted it was battling financially due to increasing threats from streaming services, social media and piracy. The group also pointed to local challenges, such as rising personal indebtedness and frequent power outages. This led to a 60% drop in trading profit over the past two years and a steady decline in subscriber numbers.

“MultiChoice does not currently have the scale needed to succeed in the new environment,” it said. The company sees the merger as essential to building “a global media company with 41 million subscribers”. It argues that “an African media champion will provide numerous benefits to South Africa”.

In May, the Competition Commission recommended that the merger proceed, subject to several conditions. These include employment guarantees, supplier development commitments, support for HDPs and worker shareholding in MultiChoice units Orbicom and LicenceCo, maintaining operations in South Africa, and promoting diversity in news content.

The merged entity will report on its compliance with the conditions for at least three years. Both companies have agreed to a three-year moratorium on retrenchments.

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada welcomed the regulator’s conditional approval at the time, calling it a “major step forward in our ambition to create a global media and entertainment company with Africa at its heart”. He reaffirmed Canal+’s commitment to investing in local content and supporting South Africa’s creative and sports ecosystems.

The article was originally published by ITWeb

Captain Planet Live-Action Series In The Works At Netflix

Captain Planet and the Planeteers‘ long-awaited live-action adaptation is getting a big boost — and a major twist. In a competitive situation, Netflix has landed for development Captain Planet, a live-action series based on the cult animated show, Deadline has learned. It hails from Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Productions, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Warner Bros. Television where Berlanti Prods. is based.

Mrs. Davis co-creator/executive producer Tara Hernandez will be writing the adaptation of the 1990 environmental superhero animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which ran on TBS and in syndication for six seasons.

Appian Way previously spearheaded a live-action feature Captain Planet take. Originally set up at Paramount Pictures in 2016 with Glen Powell co-writing with Jono Matt and potentially starring, the project never materialized, with the rights eventually reverting to Warner Bros. Discovery, though Powell had remained passionate about it as his star rose fast post-Top Gun: Maverick.

Conceived by Ted Turner, Captain Planet and the Planeteers follows five teenagers who tackle environmental disasters with the help of a superhero, Captain Planet. The animated series was produced by DIC Enterprises (Seasons 1-3) and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons (Seasons 4-6).

Berlanti is no stranger to the superhero genre — he built an expansive DC universe at the CW. This marks Berlanti Prods.’ second high-profile live-action series adaptation of a beloved WBD animated property for Netflix, joining the upcoming Scooby-Doo origin series. At Netflix, the company also was behind hit thriller drama series You, co-created by Berlanti.

Berlanti Prods.’ current slate includes NBC’s Brilliant Minds and the CW’s All American. The company’s pipeline also includes horror thriller Stillwater, based on the Skybound comics, which has a series order at Amazon with Berlanti and Carly Wray adapting; mystery Foster Dade in the works at Hulu; Dilettante, starring Jeff Daniels, set up at Apple; and a family drama at HBO Max.

Environmental causes have been at the heart of Appian Way’s documentary slate with projects such as the Emmy-winning The Path Of the Panther, We Are Guardians, Virunga, And We Go Green, Fin, The Loneliest Whale and Ice On Fire as well as the kids animated series Ozi: Voice of the Forest.

After a decade as a writer-producer on The Big Bang Theory and spinoff Young Sheldon, Hernandez co-created with Damon Lindelof and served as an executive producer and showrunner on Peacock’s AI-themed limited series Mrs. Davis. She is repped by WME. Berlanti Prods. is repped by CAA; Appian Way by LBI.

Sky Kids Halts Original Commissions As More Consumers Streamline

On the heels of unveiling highlights of its upcoming animation slate, U.K. channel Sky Kids has announced it is transitioning to an all-licensed programming model, calling a stop to commissions for original content. Current productions in the pipeline will continue for the next two years, including 13 announced and unannounced titles.

“Sky Kids has built an extensive library of high-quality and award-winning original programming and third-party content that continues to engage and delight young audiences. With a strong pipeline of new original shows still to come, we now have a rich slate of content that allows us to evolve our strategy,” said Jamie Morris, Executive Director of Content Strategy & Performance.

“In the future Sky Kids will focus on acquiring third party content. While this means reviewing the number of roles required to deliver the next phase of our offer, we remain committed to bringing the very best in children’s entertainment to families across the U.K.”

Sky Kids’ current library includes roughly 150 original programs, including popular animated series Pip and Posy, 123 Number Squad, Happy Town, Ready Eddie Go!, The Very Small Creatures and mixed-media series Funny Talking Animals. Among its licensed offerings are The Pingu Show, Miffy, Simon, Isadora Moon and its upcoming sibling-series Emerald.

On Wednesday, the U.K.-based Children’s Media Foundation (CMF) released a statement on the channel’s decision, describing it as “depressing and short-sighted.” The missive acknowledges the challenges of the children’s content industry in Britain and across the globe, but urges Sky Kids to reconsider a course which will limit children’s entertainment choices with a focus on “high volume, cheaply made content.”

“This is not the time to give up on great U.K. content for UK kids. Just as we are working with government and platforms like YouTube to help children and young people find more personally and socially valuable content on video-sharing platforms, Sky is walking away from its kids’ audience,” said CMF Director Greg Childs. “What’s needed is fresh thinking about deals and partnerships that take their content to where kids are watching, not a knee-jerk cost-cutting spree which will damage their relationship with their customers and certainly diminish the prospects of quality viewing time for children in their country.”

The statement reads:

The Children’s Media Foundation has expressed surprise and deep concern at the announcement that Sky is to cease children’s commissioning in favor of simply acquiring content for the Sky Kids service.

This is a depressing and short-sighted decision, which will leave U.K. children less well-served. Sky Kids content has gained a reputation amongst parents and young people as high value, rich, thoughtful as well as fun.  This is what our children need more than ever in the face of competition for their attention from high volume, cheaply made content that dominates the YouTube offering.

In the Foundation we appreciate that the economics of children’s content are increasingly difficult in the face of competition from YouTube for attention.  But giving up on young people is not the right option. This decision leaves the BBC and Five’s Milkshake! as the only significant commissioners of factual and entertainment content for children in the U.K. — not a position the public service broadcaster wishes to see, and not good for the audience. Healthy competition was provided by Sky, and healthier kids were the outcome of its program offering.

We urge Sky to reconsider its decision and maintain a level of original commissioning which will support the already badly hit children’s media industry and importantly would continue to support U.K. kids to experience their own stories and hear their own voices, as so much of Sky Kids’ content currently provides.

Canal+'s MultiChoice Set To Approach The Tribunal Bench On Thursday, July 17th And Friday, July 18th

The Competition Tribunal will hear the proposed merger between French media giant Canal+ and South Africa’s MultiChoice Group on Thursday and Friday, 17 and 18 July 2025.

Canal+ wants to acquire MultiChoice, which owns DStv, Showmax, SuperSport, and several other media assets, and triggered South Africa’s mandatory offer threshold of 35% ownership in early 2024.

During the hearings, the Tribunal will consider submissions from the Competition Commission, Media Monitoring Africa, Pambili Media, and the merger parties themselves.

South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition will attend the hearings and is also expected to submit inputs.

“The Commission has recommended to the Tribunal that the proposed merger be approved, subject to a package of public interest conditions,” the Tribunal said in a statement.

The proposed merger reached a major milestone in March 2025, when South Africa’s communications regulator published an application to transfer the control of Orbicom’s licences to Canal+.

Orbicom is MultiChoice’s signal distributor, and the move to transfer control of its electronic communication and radio frequency spectrum licences is a crucial step in progressing the takeover.

Orbicom submitted applications to transfer control of its various licences to Canal+ on 28 November 2024.

South Africa’s communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), is evaluating the application based on the following criteria:

• promotion of competition in the ICT sector;

• interests of consumers; and,

• equity ownership by Historically Disadvantaged Persons (HDPs).

The regulator said it noted Orbicom’s submission that HDPs have a 40% shareholding in Groupe Canal+.

Icasa invited all interested parties to lodge written representations of the application within 14 working days of the publication of its announcement.

The regulator published the notice on Tuesday, 18 March 2025, giving interested persons until Monday, 7 April, to submit their written representations.

Canal+ had gradually but steadily bought up MultiChoice shares on the open market since October 2020, hitting the mandatory offer threshold in early 2024.