For years the story at DStv was one of customers drifting away. Its first set of results under French owner Canal+ tells a different one: the satellite broadcaster has just landed its best run of new sign-ups in years, and June was its strongest month for new subscribers in South Africa in a decade.
Across MultiChoice’s markets, subscriber acquisition ran 40% faster in the six months to end-June than a year earlier. Group-wide, Canal+ counted 41.2 million subscribers, up 8.4% on the year. Chief executive Maxime Saada was quick to concede that the world’s most-watched football tournament flattered June’s numbers.
The numbers behind the turn
The financials moved the right way. Group revenue jumped 40% to €4.3 billion, mostly because MultiChoice’s sales are now folded into Canal+, and MultiChoice’s own core operating profit surged 160% to €143 million, driven by €120 million of savings from combining the two businesses. Investors liked it: the shares rose about 8% on the JSE the day the results landed. Even so, Saada refused to declare victory. “It is too early to say we have achieved a turnaround,” he said, warning the group will have to work hard to keep the subscribers it has just won once the football fades. To hold them, Canal+ has been buying up content and widening access, securing long-term rights to South Africa’s Premier Soccer League and lifting its number of points of sale by more than 15% since March.
Money from switching off
The half’s oddest win came from shutting something down. Canal+ closed the Showmax streaming service at the end of April, and rather than costing money, the closure produced a gain of about €15 million, or R285 million. The reason is an accounting quirk: winding down the loss-making service triggered a one-off tax credit of €48 million (R914 million), which outweighed the roughly €33 million (R629 million) in pre-tax operating losses being cleared away.
Canal+, which bought MultiChoice and delisted it from the JSE in late 2025, confirmed its guidance for the full year and says it is halfway to its €250 million savings target. The open question is whether DStv can hold on to the viewers a bumper sporting year helped bring through the door, once the tournaments are over.
