Canal+ takes fight to Netflix in Africa with MultiChoice

Stream TV Insider

Pay TV operator Canal+, owned by French media group Vivendi, is looking to take full control of South Africa's MultiChoice Group and better compete with Netflix in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Canal+ already owns 35% of MultiChoice and had an initial bid to buy the remaining shares turned down.

It has returned with an offer which values the African TV and streaming giant at $2.92 billion. Indications are this could be enough to persuade investors and seal the buyout.

MultiChoice owns pay-TV services and operates Showmax which, since launch in 2015, is the second largest streaming platform in Africa, behind Netflix. In total it had 8.6 million subscribers in South Africa and a further 13 million subscribers across the rest of the continent at end of September 2023. It claims to be the leader in pay television in English- and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

Canal+ Group boasts 25.5 million subscribers in more than 50 countries so adding MultiChoice would bring its base to nearly 50 million globally, still some distance behind Netflix’ 260 million subscribers.

Netflix was estimated to reach 2.6 million subscriptions in Africa by the end of 2021, accounting for about half of the subscribers of streaming on demand in Africa. In 2026, the number of subscribers is projected to double, reaching 5.8 million.

NBCUniversal (with parent Comcast) is a stakeholder in MultiChoice’s Showmax Group, taking a 30% share as part of a wider technology and content partnership a year ago “at a time when Africa is approaching an inflection point in terms of broadband connectivity and affordability.” MultiChoice retained 70% ownership of Showmax.

As part of that deal MultiChoice recently relaunched Showmax using technology licenced from Comcast and used to power NBCU’s Peacock. Among other things the tech integrates streaming, on demand, broadcast, and linear networks adding unified voice search, discovery, apps and interactive features.

A previous deal saw MultiChoice adopt another Comcast technology, Sky Glass, a connected TV operating system and app aggregation platform.

NBCU and Sky are also providing MultiChoice with a pipe of international content including live matches of English Premier League (EPL) soccer and third party content from HBO, Warner Brothers and Sony.

Vivendi had been buying up stock in MultiChoice since 2020, becoming the South African company’s largest investor. When it amassed a 35% stake this triggered local regulations that require it to make a takeover bid.

French banking group BNPP said the deal makes strategic sense. “Canal+ growth strategy comes expanding in International African and Asian growth markets, investing in Studio Canal, the largest content producer in Europe while managing through a difficult French TV market. In that sense acquiring MultiChoice will help expand its African footprint.”

Vivendi said it aims to create “a large-scale African media company capable of thriving in an increasingly competitive international market.”

Last month, Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada said, "To accelerate MultiChoice's development in Africa and beyond, it will need to adopt a strategy that will enable it to increase its size and strengthen its local and global footprint.”