MultiChoice loses 2.8m subscribers as Canal+ unveils roadmap to restore growth in African Pay-TV market
MultiChoice, the company behind DStv, is facing one of the steepest declines in its history, shedding 2.8 million subscribers between its peak on 31 March 2023 and this year. The broadcaster’s customer base has fallen from 17.3 million to 14.5 million within two years — a drop of more than 16%.
The extent of the decline became clearer after MultiChoice’s new parent company, French media giant Groupe Canal+, highlighted the trend in a recent investor briefing. The numbers revealed that subscriber erosion is only one part of the challenge, as the downturn is also evident in revenue, trading profit and other key performance indicators.
Subscriber losses in MultiChoice’s home market of South Africa have been unfolding for nearly a decade, beginning around 2016 when Netflix entered the global market and rapidly expanded across Africa. Although MultiChoice initially slowed the impact by growing its entry-level packages and expanding into other African territories, the pressure intensified over time.
Following its unbundling from Naspers in 2019, MultiChoice combined DStv Premium and Compact Plus customers into a single “Premium market segment.” This move temporarily obscured the decline in its high-end subscriber base, but by 2021 even this blended category began to contract.
The broadcaster later revised its reporting method, shifting from total subscriber counts to a 90-day active user metric. The change helped cushion the perception of declining numbers until the 2023 financial year, when contractions across the rest of Africa also became unavoidable and forecasts showed continued shrinkage through 2024 and 2025.
In its final financial report before the full Canal+ takeover, covering the year ending 31 March 2025, MultiChoice attributed its challenges to broader macroeconomic instability. “The past two financial years have been marked by considerable economic disruption across sub-Saharan Africa due to difficult macroeconomic conditions,” the company noted. It added that piracy, intensifying competition from streaming platforms, and shifting viewer behaviour driven by social media further harmed performance.
Beyond the steep loss of linear pay-TV customers, MultiChoice also absorbed a US$596 million revenue hit due to the weakening of African currencies against the US dollar. Management responded with a structured pricing strategy, applying an average inflation-linked increase of 5.7% in South Africa for FY25, and an average 31% adjustment across other African markets.
These price measures helped cushion declining subscriber volumes, supporting a marginal 1% organic revenue growth for the fiscal year. The company also delivered US$216 million in cost savings — significantly above its original US$117 million target and higher than its revised mid-year goal of US$146 million.
Nevertheless, organic trading profit fell by 9% year-on-year, partly attributed to rising operational expenses linked to Showmax during a heavy investment cycle.
Canal+, in a presentation issued on 21 November, laid out its strategy to revive MultiChoice’s growth trajectory. The plan centres on accelerating subscriber acquisition across Africa’s still-underpenetrated pay-TV market, while balancing acquisition spending with improved distribution and operational efficiencies. The French group emphasised that every African territory remains important for long-term expansion, signalling a commitment to broad continental investment.
The strategy also seeks to strengthen MultiChoice’s value proposition by enriching content, promoting cross-platform content sharing, and adopting more effective marketing approaches. Canal+ further intends to overhaul the cost structure to create a sustainable, future-proof pay-TV model — shifting away from earlier tactics that prioritised short-term profitability. Achieving substantial cost synergies is a central objective, aimed at restoring financial resilience and positioning the business for renewed growth.
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