French media company Canal+ has acquired the remaining shares of MultiChoice in a groundbreaking deal. (Oupa Nkosi)
French media company Canal+ has acquired the remaining shares of MultiChoice in a groundbreaking deal which will broaden local entertainment to international audiences.
The takeover deal, which started in early 2024, saw Canal+ initially acquiring each share for R105 and later for R125. The deal became unconditional in September this year — meaning all the required conditions for the transaction to go ahead had been met.
“The acquisition of MCG [MultiChoice] by Canal+ marks the largest transaction ever undertaken by Canal+, cementing the combined group’s position as a global media and entertainment company,” the companies said in a joint statement published on Monday.
“The combined group will serve more than 40 million subscribers across close to 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, supported by a workforce of approximately 17 000 employees.”
The companies have also committed to a package of public interest measures for the local market. These include supporting firms controlled by historically disadvantaged people and small, micro and medium enterprises in the local audio-visual sector and maintaining funding for local general entertainment and sports content produced by South Africans.
Subscription and billing arrangements will remain the same for MultiChoice customers.
The deal holds significant potential for the local creatives and audiences, Andrew Bahlmann, director of Deal Leaders International, a professional sell-side mergers and acquisitions advisory, told the Mail & Guardian.
“MultiChoice already has an extensive African footprint and production pipeline; Canal+ brings broader international distribution experience and windows,” Bahlmann said.
“The merger’s content-funding and export commitments create an infrastructure to scale South African content into new markets which can monetise local IP, raise production standards and create follow-on opportunities for service providers, writers and crews.
“However, that upside isn’t automatic. Realising export potential requires strategic programming, subtitling/dubbing, festival and sales activity and distribution deals — areas where careful commercial structuring and long-term investment plans are important.”
The deal could change viewing options for local audiences over time.
“Canal+ gains access to MultiChoice’s DStv, Showmax and other platforms and the combined group can cross-distribute programming across a wider footprint, which may bring more international titles to African platforms while also making African titles available to Canal+’s francophone and European windows,” Bahlmann said.
“At the same time, regulatory conditions require continued investment in local
audiovisual content, so viewers are likely to see a sustained and potentially expanded slate of South African and African productions.
“However, platform strategy (what stays exclusive, what is distributed widely) will still determine who sees what, where and when.”
The combined group controls both linear pay-TV (traditional subscription television), internet streaming (Showmax/myCANAL) and sports rights, such as SuperSport, which would essentially diversify the offerings on different platforms and devices.
“This multi-channel footprint allows content to be repackaged for different audiences and devices, from premium live sport on subscription feeds to on-demand local dramas on streaming services,” Bahlmann said.
“For viewers, that can mean greater choice and easier cross-platform discovery; for creators, it opens multiple monetisation routes. The precise programming mix will depend on the merged entity’s commercial strategy and on the exact carve-outs/conditions mandated by regulators.”
South African investors will not forfeit shares as a result of the deal, as Canal+, which has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, will undertake a secondary inward listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
This will preserve South African investor access and market liquidity and will also allow local investors to hold shares in the company on the JSE.
“Following this outcome [the takeover], we will be moving ahead with a squeeze-out of MultiChoice shareholders and a subsequent secondary inward listing of Canal+ in Johannesburg, in addition to our primary listing in London,” said Maxime Saada, the chief executive of Canal+.
“Given the important role Canal+ will now play in South Africa, and across the African continent, I believe it to be critically important that domestic investors have the ability to have exposure to a leading media and entertainment company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange while investors continue to get access to Canal+ through the London Stock Exchange.”
The secondary inward listing will also broaden Canal+’s investor base “reinforcing the company’s long-term commitment to South Africa and Africa’s creative economy and support continued institutional exposure to the media sector”, according to the statement.
The international market will gain access to African media markets and it confirms that large European media groups view Africa “as a strategic growth terrain”, but it also consolidates market power, Bahlmann said.
“This transaction illustrates both the commercial opportunities and the complexity of cross-border media M&A [mergers and acquisitions],” he added.
“Thoughtful structuring — not just headline deal terms — will determine whether the transaction is a true win for investors, audiences and the local creative economy.”