Global Phenomenon Landman Dubbed In Afrikaans On KykNET

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kykNET has struck a major blow for Afrikaans viewers by purchasing the dubbing rights to this hit series, which captivates audiences everywhere with nail-biting intrigue in the turbulent world of the Texas oil industry. 

“We are very excited to see how viewers will react to this series—including those for whom Landman is completely new, as well as those who may have already watched the series in English on M-Net and now want to experience it in their mother tongue. Landman is one of the major TV highlights of recent years, and we believe the story world created by Taylor Sheridan will be gripping for many kykNET viewers—and entertaining!” says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net Director of Premium Channels. “Be warned, however: it gets quite hot there in Texas!”

The series was created by Taylor Sheridan, who was also responsible for hit series such as Yellowstone, 1883, and 1923. Landman is set in West Texas and tells the complex story of a group of people—from billionaires to oil field workers—whose lives revolve around oil. 

Billy Bob Thornton stars as the landman Tommy Norris. In Afrikaans, a landman is someone involved in working farmland. In this case, it refers to the crucial link between oil companies and landowners; the one who must negotiate rights for extraction and development while considering legal regulations that a team of highly-paid lawyers naturally tries to bend in favour of their employers. 

Landman, however, does not only revolve around landowners and rich oil bosses. West Texas borders Mexico, meaning the area is also used by drug cartels as a distribution route. 

Who's who

• Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton, voiced by De Waal Stemmet): A hardened landman working for M-Tex Oil who handles all their negotiations. Keeping everyone, from oil bosses to drug dealers, happy is no easy task.

• Angela (Ali Larter, voiced by Natasja Jacobs): Tommy's ex-wife and the mother of his two children, Cooper and Ainsley.

• Cooper (Jacob Lofland, voiced by Rowlen von Gericke): Studied geology but dropped out and now works for M-Tex as a roughneck on the oil fields.

• Ainsley (Michelle Randolph, voiced by Anré Buguegnon): A high school student.

• Rebecca Falcone (Kayla Wallace, voiced by Sue Pyler): A lawyer who does work for M-Tex Oil.

• Dale Bradley (James Jordan, voiced by Antowan Nöthling): A petroleum engineer and a good friend of Tommy.

• Monty Miller (Jon Hamm, voiced by Charl van Heyningen): The owner of M-Tex Oil who has a long-standing professional and personal relationship with Tommy.

• Cami Miller (Demi Moore, voiced by Renske Jacobs): Monty's wife.

• Nathan (Colm Feore, voiced by Jakkie Groenewald): An attorney and administrator at M-Tex Oil.

• Ariana Medina (Paulina Chavez, voiced by Claudia Jones): A young widow whose husband died in an accident on one of M-Tex Oil's fields. 

A formidable team of translators, including Morné Coetzer, Janine Opperman, and Francois le Roux, excelled at the challenging task of capturing the atmosphere of this brilliant series in Afrikaans. The dubbing directors are Rina Nienaber and De Waal Stemmet.

kykNET's Afrikaans version is one of the few dubbed versions of the series available worldwide. 

Showmax Has Been Deemed As Unsuccessful, Canal+ Looking To Wind Down On Investments

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Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada says MultiChoice’s streaming platform, Showmax, was not a commercial success and that the company will cut further investments into the service.

Speaking during Canal+’s presentation on cost-cutting targets following its acquisition of MultiChoice, Saada was asked about his company’s plans for Showmax.

“Showmax is not a commercial success. It’s quite obvious. There were a lot of dedicated investments on the marketing side, on the content side, on the technology side,” the CEO said.

“We are in a position to reduce those investments. They are included in the synergies. I won’t say how much, but it is significant.”

However, he explained that their strategy was all about growth. So, when making these decisions, Canal+ will be very careful to avoid losing potentially valuable subscribers.

“Although we are very quick at assessing the investments that we believe are required and those that are not. We are also very cautious not to negatively impact the top line,” Saada said.

“Otherwise, it would be like a bandaid we could rip off, but we are not going to do that. There was so much investment there that we had a lot of room to improve the situation.”

Groupe Canal+ gained control of the MultiChoice Group in September 2025, following a lengthy mandatory buyout process. The final phase of the transaction commenced on 13 October 2025.

MultiChoice first launched its Showmax streaming platform in 2015. However, it received significant upgrades and relaunched as Showmax 2.0 in February 2024.

The DStv-owner had high hopes for the revamped platform, pinning its entire future on it and telling investors that it expected to generate $1 billion (R15.7 billion) in net revenue in five years.

The first indications of MultiChoice’s plans for Showmax surfaced in March 2023, when it announced a deal that would give its streaming service access to the technology behind NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

The deal’s terms stipulated that MultiChoice would sell a 30% stake in Showmax to NBCUniversal and Sky.

Showmax 2.0

MultiChoice invested in marketing, technology, and new content for Showmax’s relaunch. MultiChoice announced three subscription plans for Showmax alongside its relaunch.

These are Showmax Entertainment, Showmax Entertainment Mobile, and Showmax Premier League. The latter is a mobile-only subscription providing access to all 380 English Premier League matches.

Showmax Entertainment offers content like series, movies, and kids’ shows. It is also available in a mobile-only format for a lower monthly fee.

Showmax’s relaunch included an expanded local catalogue, including 21 Showmax Originals from four African countries. It promised that 1,300 hours of new Showmax Originals would be released in 2024.

The company’s strategy aimed to leverage the African streaming market entering an anticipated boom phase, and position Showmax to become the continent’s leading video streaming service.

It highlighted that Africa is home to more than 450 million smartphone users and 250 million football lovers, which MultiChoice saw as a significant untapped market.

“It is critical that we make our move now before others reorganise themselves and make a play for Africa, which is seen as the last remaining growth market,” MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela said.

A year after Showmax’s relaunch, MultiChoice said it was seeing significant growth in its subscriber base, with the number of paying customers increasing 50% year-on-year by September 2024.

“It was a landmark year for Showmax, which grew its paying subscriber base, excluding discontinued services, by 50% year-on-year,” it said.

In its results for the period, the broadcaster said it expected the growth to accelerate as its strategic initiatives start to bear fruit.

“Showmax streamer was named Best Television/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa and Entertainment App of the Year at the Stuff App Awards,” it added.

While the streaming platform recorded further year-on-year growth in the 2025 financial year, it hasn’t been the success that MultiChoice had envisioned.

The streamer recorded 44% year-on-year growth and said the number of Showmax Originals offered on the platform had increased to 89.

The revenue it generated during the financial year was approximately R750 million, and MultiChoice said its revenue growth was impacted by discontinued products, like Showmax Pro, ahead of the relaunch.

MultiChoice initially projected that Showmax would make trading losses, which would begin decreasing by the 2025 financial year. However, the opposite happened.

MultiChoice’s latest annual results showed that Showmax’s trading loss had worsened by 88% from R2.6 billion to R4.9 billion. At the same time, revenue also significantly declined.

“The increased trading losses reflect the start-up nature of the business, with a step-change in content costs and increased platform costs,” MultiChoice said.

“Its results were also impacted by discontinuation of the Showmax Pro and diaspora packages in 2H FY24, prior to re-launch.”

The Group also recognised a R1.5 billion net loss from Showmax in its bottom line for its last financial year. Considering it owns 70% of the platform indicates that its overall net loss was R2.15 billion.

Canal+ Expects Billions In Savings After MultiChoice Deal

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Canal+ expects to generate more than €400-million (R7.5-billion) in annual earnings “synergies” from its acquisition of MultiChoice Group, underlining the strategic importance of Africa to the French media group’s long-term growth ambitions.

In a statement released on Thursday, Canal+ said the combined group is targeting run-rate cost synergies of more than €400-million at earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (Ebita) level, and more than €300-million in free cash flow, from 2030 onwards.

The group said the acquisition, which gave Canal+ effective control of MultiChoice in September 2025, had created a “unique global entertainment platform” anchored in Europe and Africa, with increased scale allowing it to optimise costs across content, technology and other group functions.

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada said the deal positioned the group to capitalise on Africa’s long-term growth potential, while also delivering substantial efficiencies. “Our increased scale will enable us to generate substantial synergies, particularly across our cost base,” he said.

Africa is central to Canal+’s growth plans. The company said a combined management team is now responsible for all African markets under the leadership of Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot, bringing together executives from both businesses.

The group cited favourable long-term trends on the continent, including rapid population growth, improving economic prospects and rising electrification and pay-TV penetration. Canal+ said its African subscriber base grew from 400 000 to nine million between 2010 and 2025, while MultiChoice’s customer base expanded from 3.9 million to 14.1 million over the same period.

Cost base

Together, the combined group has more than 40 million subscribers and operates in more than 70 countries. Canal+ said it is targeting between 50 million and 100 million subscribers over the longer term.

The company added that work is already under way to return MultiChoice’s African operations to growth following subscriber pressure in recent years. Further details on its plans for MultiChoice markets will be shared alongside Canal+’s full-year results in March.

Canal+ estimates the combined group’s 2025 cost base at around €8-billion, split between content costs of about €4.6-billion and technology and other costs of roughly €3.4-billion.

Cost synergies are expected to ramp up steadily, with more than €150-million in Ebita and free cash flow benefits targeted in 2026, rising to more than €300-million by 2028 and reaching full run-rate levels from 2030.

The group said more than €80-million of free cash flow synergies for 2026 have already been secured, including through new content partnerships, renegotiated hardware prices, optimisation of broadcasting and technology infrastructure, and the refinancing of MultiChoice’s long-term debt.

Implementation costs linked to the integration are expected to total about €35-million in 2026, rising to €40-million in 2028 and then declining to €20-million in 2030.

To support delivery of the synergies, Canal+ has centralised key group functions, including sports and entertainment content acquisition, technology, and procurement. It has also established dedicated governance structures to track and manage integration and cost savings.

Canal+ will provide further detail on the combined group’s strategy when it publishes its results for the year ended 31 December 2025 on 11 March 2026.

Canal+ Might Be Shedding More Costs On SuperSport With The Upcoming Spring Classics

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The Spring Classics are an early season event that kicks off the major pro cycling calendar, with Milan-San Remo (longest one-day race, often sprint finish), Strade Bianche (gravel roads, dramatic), and Paris-Roubaix (cobbled sectors, iconic) being huge draws.

SuperSport historically covered many events (e.g., Tour de France via ASO partnerships), but different organizers hold rights: ASO for Paris-Roubaix, RCS for the Italian races. This leads to gaps where SuperSport secures some but not others.

In an enquiry, SuperSport had confirmed they secured rights to the Paris-Roubaix but not Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche. It's less likely that SuperSport will try to secure them at a later stage.

Rights for these races (organized by RCS Sport) are typically secured well in advance for major broadcasters. The races will commence in March with Strade Bianche on March 7 and Milan-San Remo around March 21.

Fans will have to rely on VPNs, international streams, or other platforms as workarounds.

Several scenarios do enter the fray as to why SuperSport opted to not secure the rights. Firstly, Canal+ took over MultiChoice in late 2025 and had been slashing costs within the company as seen with Philly's Games and World Darts Championship.

Another stems from licensing costs, the relatively small South African cycling fanbase, and rights fragmentation.

February 2026 On Travel Channel, Discovery Family And Real Time Across Africa | Channel Premiere: Selena + Restaurant | Returning Shows Include Salvage Hunters: The Restorers | More

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Travel Channel 

Naked and Afraid S1

NEW TO CHANNEL

One man and one woman, who meet for the first time in the nude, are paired and tasked with surviving in some of the world's most extreme environments for 21 days with no food, water or clothing.

First TX: 9 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 14:20

Last TX: 26 February

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives S1 & S2

NEW TO CHANNEL

Guy Fieri road trips across America to check out classic greasy spoons. With a new generation of owners and delicious homemade food, these are the kind of places that make America special.

First TX: 9 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 13:30

Last TX: 24 February

Returning shows include House Hunters International S134, S133, S135 on 4 February at 06:00 (ends 27 February).

Discovery Family 

Expedition X S1

New to Channel

Josh Gates and his team investigate the realms beyond the "unknown ."

First TX: 20 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 21:05

Last TX: 3 March

Into the Jungle with Ed Stafford S1

New to Channel

Ed Stafford sets up an extreme survival school that will put struggling modern dads and their children through the toughest challenges.

First TX: 2 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 20:10

Last TX: 9 February

Wild & Weird America  S1

New to channel

Watch uproarious, real-life moments: backyard mishaps, car chaos, avalanche disasters, stunts, spills and thrills, all unforgettably caught on camer.

First TX: 20 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 20:10

Last TX: 27 February

World’s Greatest Cars S1

New to channel

In the ultimate treat for petrolheads, top motoring experts count down the best vehicles ever made in this turbo-charged series.

First TX: 12 February

TX Day: Thursday

TX Time: 18:25

Last TX: 19 March

Returning shows include Salvage Hunters: The Restorers S4 on 23 February at 15:00 (ends 20 March) and Wheelers Dealers S14 on 10 February at 15:50 (ends 20 February).

Real Time

Who's Afraid of a Cheap Old House? S1

New to Channel

Historic house experts Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein help homebuyers find cheap, old properties and restore these architectural gems to new glory.

First TX: 2 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 14:35

Last TX: 11 February

The Mountain Kitchen S1

New to Channel

For Annie Starke, it's all about great eats and good times as she prepares delicious meals indoors and over the fire at her family’s mountain ranch in Montana.

First TX: 11 February

TX Day: Weekdays

TX Time: 13:45

Last TX: 16 February

Selena + Restaurant S1

New to Channel

After working with the world's top chefs, Selena Gomez is raising the stakes! She heads out to work in Los Angeles' hottest restaurants, where she'll be put through her paces and have to learn fast to create a dish good enough for the restaurant's menu!

First TX: 16 February

TX Day: Mon-Wed

TX Time: 11:15

Last TX: 18 February

Returning shows include Lone Star Law S6 on 1 February at 23:20 (ends 24 February) and House Hunters International S197 & 198 on 9 February at 15:50 (ends 25 February).