Expect things to get more intense as Canal+ reshapes a staid MultiChoice into what it wants it to be.
MultiChoice, fresh after its takeover by Canal+ Group, has announced to subscribers that 12 channels under its carriage agreement from Warner Bros Discovery, including the Discovery Channel and CNN International, will be terminated on 31 December.
This was sent via a push notification to customers on its app on Tuesday evening. It had earlier announced that there was an impasse between it and Warner Bros Discovery and that the two parties were in negotiations about the future of the channels.
The rather unprecedented message reads as follows: “Please be advised that Discovery Channel, TLC Africa, Discovery Family, Real Time, TNT Africa, Food Network, Travel Channel, Investigation Discovery (Discovery ID), Cartoon Network, Cartoonito and CNN International will not be available from 31 Dec.”
The message neglects to include HGTV (Home & Garden Television) which is part of the stable and is one of the 12 channels that will go dark at the end of this month.
The current agreement between MultiChoice and Warner expires at the end of December. Canal+ has said it is focused on reducing costs at MultiChoice, where this is sensible. One can easily see this being applied to distribution agreements as they become renewable.
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Channel bundling
When it comes to these channel agreements, carriage is often a take-it-or-leave-it scenario, especially when a studio slowly bulks up on its offering.
You may secure one channel (say, CNN) and when renewing, the agreement asks you to add another and another at a fee, and a, say, lesser channel to ensure carriage.
Suddenly, you end up with 12 channels – none of which are in the top 10 (dare we say 20?) – watched on DStv.
It is entirely possible that not a single one of the Warner Bros Discovery channels is in the top 20 of channels watched on DStv.
Over time, this can land you in the situation where MultiChoice is ‘supplying’ a full 12 channels from Warner Bros Discovery, yet Canal+ in a very mature French market is only carrying 11, which includes two sports channels unavailable here.
ALSO READ: DStv’s MultiChoice makes changes to pave way for Canal+
This ‘surprise’ wouldn’t have happened overnight …
The new owners would’ve done their sums and calculated very clearly and neatly or exactly how much they were prepared to pay to Warner, and for what, under a new agreement.
The deal to acquire MultiChoice closed in September, but anyone knows that a lot of the ‘preparatory work’ for the subsequent work would’ve been briefed in already. Once that technical date was hit, all bets were off.
There has been a noticeable amount of energy and focus in recent weeks coming out of Randburg.
It will get more intense as Canal+ reshapes a staid MultiChoice into what it wants it to be.
Expect any sports rights up for grabs to be under intense negotiation in the month ahead.
So what if there is no Discovery Channel or CNN? This will be the calculus done by Canal+ … the key is:
a) What the viewership on these channels is; and
b) What these channels are replaced by (aside from a platter of French options, of course).
And, of course, in calling Warner’s bluff, there’s always the option that a deal can be done and the channels won’t go dark.
For subscribers, this will rather obviously not be a good result.
This is especially true for Premium customers who typically pay more than R1 000 for their subscription and who will lose 12 channels later this month.
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Au revoir …
As per the latest communication from DStv, barring a resolution to the impasse, the following channels will no longer be available in 2026:
• Discovery Channel (121)
• TLC (135)
• Discovery Family (136)
• TNT Africa (137)
• Real Time (155)
• Discovery ID (171)
• Food Network (175)
• HGTV (177)
• Travel Channel (179)
• Cartoon Network (301)
• Cartoonito (302)
• CNN International (401)
The future of Warner Bros Discovery, which was created in perhaps an ill-fated merger in 2022, is unclear after it effectively put itself up for sale earlier in 2025.
Monday was the most recent deadline for offers from rivals and suitors, with Paramount, Comcast and Netflix reportedly all in the hunt.
Bloomberg reported that both Comcast and Netflix are only interested in the studios (content) and streaming assets, while Paramount’s bid is for the entire business, including its channels.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
