MultiChoice Revenue Plummets 6% amid Inflation and Subscriber Decline

• MultiChoice's revenue reportedly declined by 6% to R45.4 billion for the year ending December 2025
• Challenges of currency devaluation and inflation significantly impacted profitability and subscriber numbers
• Its streaming platform, Showmax, reported a trading loss of R4.9 billion amid heavy investment to attract subscribers

Justin Williams, a journalist at Briefly News since 2024, covers South Africa’s current affairs. Before joining Briefly News, he served as a writer and chief editor at Right for Education Africa’s South African chapter.

MultiChoice, the operator of DStv, saw its revenues fall 6% to R45.4 billion for the year ending 31 December 2025, according to its parent company Canal+. The company's subscriber base declined from 14.9 million to 14.4 million, extending a downward trend from a peak of 17.3 million in March 2023.

Faced multiple challenges

According to MyBroadband, Canal+ highlighted that MultiChoice had previously experienced strong growth from 2010 to 2023, but has recently faced multiple challenges. Macroeconomic pressures, including currency devaluation in Nigeria, load-shedding in South Africa, and widespread inflation, particularly in content costs, undermined profitability. The performance of MultiChoice's streaming platform, Showmax, also contributed to losses. Showmax reported a trading loss of R4.9 billion in 2025, up from R2.6 billion in 2024, as the platform invested heavily to attract subscribers.

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Short-term measures by MultiChoice, such as reducing subscriber acquisition subsidies and increasing prices, further affected the subscriber base and exacerbated profitability pressures. Adjusted EBIT fell 14% to €159 million (about R3.2 billion), down from €185 million (about R3.5 billion) in 2024. Canal+ noted that some of the impact on profitability was offset by cost-cutting measures.

Under pressure since 2016

The company has been under pressure since 2016, when Premium subscribers began leaving amid the global expansion of Netflix, increasing social media consumption, and rising content piracy. MultiChoice's reported profit in 2025 was largely due to one-off gains, including the sale of 60% of its insurance business to Sanlam for R3 billion and cost savings of R3.7 billion.

Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot said the company continues to face structural challenges, with linear pay-TV under sustained pressure and consumer constraints in South Africa, including formal unemployment at around 32% and GDP growth forecasts below 1%.

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After pulling the plug on Showmax, MultiChoice is expected to phase out an app used by almost every DStv customer. On Thursday, 5 March, MultiChoice caught Showmax subscribers off guard when it announced that it was discontinuing its streaming service. Reports reaching this publication are that the new owners of MultiChoice, Canal+, aren’t done ringing in more changes.

The French company, Canal+, acquired MultiChoice and became its parent company, a move that has changed the dynamics at DStv and, subsequently, at the sports channel, SuperSport. Decisions on which sports shows and programmes to purchase no longer reside with SuperSport in South Africa, but now lie squarely in the hands of executives in Paris, France.

DStv is removing another channel from its platform before the end of February 2026. The acquisition of MultiChoice by Canal+ came with changes, including the cancellation of four popular channels in January 2026. Despite DStv saving 12 channels after agreeing a last-minute agreement on New Year's Eve 2025 with Warner Bros, the Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service has continued to remove channels from its platform.

Source: Briefly News