DStv lost 589,000 subscribers in its 2025 financial year, about one in every twelve. Canal+, the French group that bought MultiChoice and with it DStv for about R55 billion in September 2025, said on Thursday that the shrinking has carried on into this year, only at a slower pace.
Canal+ reports MultiChoice's revenue two ways. On the reported numbers it was up 0.4% for the nine months to September, but only because currency moves helped when the money was converted. Take those out and compare the same businesses in both years, and revenue fell 3%, because South Africans paid less in subscriptions and MultiChoice's other English-speaking markets only partly made up for it.
A slower slide, with help from the calendar
The improvement is mostly in the timing. The decline eased to 2% in the third quarter, from 3.4% in the first half, partly because of a kinder comparison with the previous year's run of sporting events, ITWeb reports. The subscriber base also settled back in the third quarter after the FIFA World Cup gave it a big lift in the first half, Canal+ says, though no subscriber number was given.
Packages first, then football
Canal+'s answer for South Africa went on sale in September. Chief executive Maxime Saada said the new, simplified line-up gives subscribers "more content, greater choice, and better value for the same price", and that Canal+ is "making good progress with the MultiChoice turnaround plan". The same packages are rolling out to its English- and Portuguese-speaking African markets over the coming months.
Paying the same for more is a bet that people thinking of cancelling will stay. The sharper hook is sport. Canal+ has secured exclusive rights to all of UEFA's men's club competitions, across more than 40 countries, for 2027 to 2031. That is the kind of football people pay for, and none of it reaches screens until 2027.
South Africa is now the soft spot in Canal+'s African business. Leave MultiChoice out and its revenue in Africa and Asia grew 10.2% like for like, while the South African group went the other way. The football that might change that is more than a year off, so for now the packages launched in September have to carry South Africa on their own.
