Canal+ has officially completed its $3.17 billion acquisition of MultiChoice Group, making the South African pay television giant a full subsidiary of the French media conglomerate after more than two years of negotiations and regulatory back and forth.
The deal, which values MultiChoice at roughly R55 billion, brings an end to a process that started in 2023 when Canal+, already the company’s largest shareholder, moved to acquire the remaining shares it did not own. With the transaction now finalised, Canal+ controls over 94 percent of MultiChoice, a stake large enough to trigger the delisting of the company from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after 29 years as a publicly traded entity.
David Mignot, who now serves as Chief Executive Officer of Canal+ Africa and MultiChoice, said the integration places MultiChoice within a media group operating across 70 countries, with roots in France and listings in both London and Johannesburg. He described the combined business as one with a strong African footprint spanning more than 45 countries on the continent.
The road to completion was not straightforward. Because South African law restricts foreign entities from holding more than 20 percent of voting rights in locally licensed broadcasters, MultiChoice had to restructure its South African holdings to satisfy regulators before Canal+ could take full control. This led to the creation of LicenceCo, a local entity set up to manage broadcasting licences and keep the business compliant with domestic ownership rules. The restructuring, along with approvals from South Africa’s Competition Tribunal, the Independent Communications Authority, and other regulatory bodies, cleared the final hurdles standing in the way of the takeover.
Beyond the ownership change, Canal+ has already begun reshaping how the combined business operates. The company appointed a new board and leadership team for MultiChoice, with former CEO Calvo Mawela stepping into a chairman role for Canal+’s African business rather than exiting entirely. Through its content arm, StudioCanal, Canal+ has also signalled plans to sell some of MultiChoice’s locally produced shows to international markets, a move that could give South African productions wider global exposure.
Industry watchers see the acquisition as Canal+’s strategic answer to the growing pressure from global streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, all of which have been steadily expanding their footprint across Africa. By absorbing MultiChoice’s on-the-ground infrastructure, subscriber base, and DStv and Showmax platforms, Canal+ gains immediate scale in a region with one of the youngest and fastest-growing audiences in the world.
Still, the deal has not been without friction. MultiChoice’s subscriber numbers have slipped in the months since the takeover, and Canal+ has already moved to shut down aspects of Showmax’s operations while announcing plans to bring in over a thousand new salespeople across Africa to stabilise the business. The company maintains that its long-term plan is to build on MultiChoice’s existing operations rather than dismantle them, keeping the focus on African audiences and locally produced content.
For now, the completed acquisition marks one of the largest cross-border media deals in Africa’s history, reshaping the continent’s pay-TV and streaming landscape under a single, internationally backed entity.
