Rising cost of living, currency depreciation, and competition from streaming services have all conspired to see MultiChoice lose 589,000 South African subscribers in its latest financial year.
The decline is across premium, mid-market and mass segments of its operation.
After completing its acquisition of MultiChoice, Canal+ has moved to stabilise the business.
MultiChoice’s new leadership under David Mignot, CEO, hopes to “stop the bleeding and get back to growth”.
The new leadership has scrapped DStv’s annual price increase and decided to shut down Showmax, the in-house streaming platform that struggled to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Canal+execs have described Showmax as unsuccessful, noting that the difficult transition to online streaming, combined with currency devaluation in Nigeria and power cuts, had hurt MultiChoice’s profitability.
MultiChoice ended 2025 with 14.4 million subscribers across Africa, down from 14.9 million a year earlier, while revenue declined 6 percent to 2.4 billion euros.
