Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada says the company will bring its over-the-top (OTT) platform, the Canal+ app, to South Africa to replace the “bleeding” Showmax.
MultiChoice announced its intention to shut down Showmax on 5 March 2026 and said it would ensure no disruptions for Showmax subscribers during the transition phase.
“As you know, this was a severely loss-making activity on which we saw no recovery, no matter what was done,” the CEO said.
Saada explained that Canal+ quickly came to an agreement with Comcast to shut down Showmax as soon as possible but said he couldn’t share details on the negotiations.
“Now the priority is to make sure that the people who have chosen this offer end up on something that is an even stronger experience going forward,” he said.
He explained that Canal+ hasn’t seen the same decay rate of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite customers ditching traditional TV for streaming platforms like Netflix as has been observed in the US.
“That’s the strategy David Mignot has already rolled out in French-speaking Africa and will be rolling out in the MultiChoice territories.”
Additionally, Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa, said the company will work to ensure that all Showmax content and features are made available on DStv Stream.
Despite MultiChoice positioning Showmax at the centre of its growth strategy in Africa, the streamer has been loss-making in recent years.
MultiChoice anticipated the losses but projected that they would begin to decline in the 2025 financial year. Instead, the bleeding only accelerated.
Showmax recorded trading losses of R8.7 billion over the past three financial years, with the streamer reporting a R1.2 billion loss in 2023, a R2.6 billion loss in 2024, and a R4.9 billion loss in 2025.
In a statement on Thursday, Canal+ said the annual losses at Showmax had become unsustainable in an increasingly competitive, capital-intensive streaming environment.
Showmax sent an email to subscribers assuring them that there would be no immediate interruption of the service.
It added that it would share further details well in advance, including timelines and any future steps, if required.
Canal+’s decision to shut down Showmax came after months of blunt assessments from executives about the streamer’s financial performance.
In January 2026, Saada said Showmax was not a commercial success and described its poor performance as unsurprising, given MultiChoice’s excessive investment in marketing, content, and technology. –https://mybroadband.co.za
