Another year, another decline in DStv subscribers: Will Canal+ be buying a shell?

Multichoice Group, parent company to DStv, has recorded another year of decline in subscribers. The announcement of another decline comes weeks after the Competition Commission approved the acquisition of the streaming company by French Media giant Canal+.

At the rate the streaming network is losing subscribers, Canal+ might find itself buying a shell.

Multichoice released its financial results for the year ended March 2025 on Wednesday, which revealed DStv lost subscribers, but not as many as the previous financial year.

DStv struggles

The streaming network stated that the past two financial years have been a period of significant financial disruption for economies, corporations, and consumers across sub-Saharan Africa, due to challenging macroeconomic factors.

The macroeconomic factors were combined with the impact of structural industry changes in the video entertainment sector, including the rise of piracy, the emergence of streaming services, and the growth of social media.

“Over this period, the group lost 2.8 million active linear subscribers and had to absorb a R10.2bn negative impact on its topline due to local currency depreciation against the US dollar.”

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Showmax not helping DStv

Revenue declined by 9% to R50.8 billion, primarily due to an 11% drop in subscription revenue, and trading profit decreased to R4.0 billion.

To address the decline in DStv subscribers, MultiChoice invested in Showmax, its online streaming platform. However, this strategy has not yielded any success.

The Group said that Showmax’s active paying customers increased by 44%. Despite this increase, its revenue still declined from R1.3 billion to R1.0 billion.

Showmax’s trading loss increased from R2.6 billion to R4.9 billion, highlighting the platform’s accelerating financial losses.

The future of MultiChoice

“Our performance reflects both the challenges we’ve faced and the resilience of our teams. While macroeconomic pressures and currency volatility have weighed on our results, our disciplined execution, cost management and investment in new long-term growth opportunities position us well for the future,” said Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.

MultiChoice’s outlook includes:

• Stabilising the topline in the video businesses through focused retention initiatives, while supporting rapid topline growth in the group’s interactive entertainment, fintech and insurance investees, 
• Continuing to drive operating, cost and working capital efficiencies into the group to protect profitability and cash flows,
• Continuing to work with Canal+ towards a successful close of their mandatory offer, unlocking significant long-term benefits for the combined entities and their respective stakeholders.

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