MultiChoice Chief Executive, Calvo Mawela, has revealed that the proposed $3 billion merger with French media giant Canal+, owned by Vivendi SE, aims to strengthen the African TV company’s ability to compete with global streaming giants like Netflix.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, Mawela highlighted that the merger, which is still pending regulatory approval, would expand MultiChoice’s market reach across Africa by combining its English-speaking territories with Canal+’s presence in French-speaking regions.
Mawela explained that the deal would provide the scale necessary for MultiChoice to negotiate better content deals and boost revenue potential. “A combination gives us a better chance to compete against the global giants,” Mawela said, emphasizing that scale is crucial in the streaming industry.
He added that the merger would allow the two companies to leverage each other’s strengths in their respective markets, facilitating more favorable content deals and expanding their customer base.
The merger is classified as a “large merger” under South African competition law and will require approval from the Competition Tribunal. MultiChoice officially accepted Vivendi’s offer in June, marking the beginning of what could be a transformative deal for the company.
Projections from Digital TV Research show Netflix leading the African streaming market by 2029, with an estimated 6.9 million subscribers, while MultiChoice’s Showmax is expected to reach 3.7 million. To bolster Showmax’s position in the competitive market, MultiChoice partnered with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky last year, adding live Premier League coverage to its offerings.
However, MultiChoice is facing challenges in its largest market, Nigeria. The company reported a loss of 243,000 subscribers across its DSTV and GOTV services in Nigeria in its interim financial results for the six months ending September 30, 2024. The company attributed the subscriber decline to high inflation, which has strained household budgets due to rising costs of essentials such as food, electricity, and fuel.
