Canal+ has outlined a turnaround plan for MultiChoice centred on rebuilding subscriber growth, simplifying its commercial offer and accelerating cost synergies to reverse the African pay-TV operator’s recent decline.
Speaking on the company’s full-year 2025 earnings call, Canal+ management said MultiChoice had entered a “negative cycle” from 2023 as currency devaluation, inflation, power cuts, rising content costs and the costly failure of Showmax combined to hit profitability and drive customer losses.
Maxime Saada, CEO and chairman of the management board at Canal+, said the same leadership team that had turned around Canal+ would now focus on restoring growth at MultiChoice.
“This is the same team who will now turn around MultiChoice, together with the support from former leaders at MultiChoice who know their markets,” he said.
Canal+ said the plan rests on four pillars: strengthening content, simplifying packaging and branding, restarting subscriber acquisition and tightening operational execution.
Content will sit at the heart of the recovery strategy, with Canal+ aiming to combine the strengths of Canal+ and MultiChoice across sport, local channels, local production and international partnerships. Football remains central, but management also highlighted the role of locally produced entertainment in African markets, alongside broader studio and streaming deals.
David Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa, said: “We will leverage our experience, both from Canal+ and MultiChoice, to reverse the recent trends at MultiChoice.”
He added: “We will get back to profitable growth, and this work has already started.”
The second element of the plan is a simplification of MultiChoice’s consumer proposition. Canal+ said the current structure has too many offers, price points, decoders and brands, making it harder to market effectively. The aim is to create clearer and more appealing commercial packages while making better use of flagship brands.
The third pillar is a renewed push on subscriber acquisition. Canal+ plans to invest around €100 million in 2026 in what it described as a “boost plan”, with 90% of that spending variable. The company said this will be used to lower the upfront cost of joining the platform by subsidising and standardising set-top boxes and satellite dishes, while also expanding the sales network.
Mignot said MultiChoice had reduced investment in its commercial engine in recent years and that Canal+ was now restoring that effort. “We are re-accelerating very quickly the sales engine to get back to numbers that were already in place back in 2022,” he said.
He added that Canal+ markets currently have around 3.5 times more points of sale per electrified household than MultiChoice markets, a gap the company intends to close.
The fourth pillar is operational discipline, with Canal+ applying group-wide best practice across the business. Management said this would include anti-piracy measures, improved execution and tighter cost control.
A major part of the reset is the closure of Showmax. Canal+ said the streaming business had been heavily loss-making and would be discontinued, with features and content migrated to other platforms. However, the group insisted this does not represent a retreat from OTT.
Saada said: “We will develop a very ambitious OTT strategy, but we will just do it with our platform that we own 100%, proprietary platform.”
In financial terms, Canal+ expects MultiChoice adjusted EBIT to rise from €159 million in 2025 to around €170 million in 2026, despite continued pressure from declining revenues and cost inflation. That forecast is supported by an accelerated synergy plan, with Canal+ now targeting €250 million in adjusted EBIT synergies and €220 million in free cash flow synergies in 2026.
Saada said Canal+ had been conservative in its assumptions, but made clear the group expects MultiChoice to return to growth. “We are not only going to break the negative cycle,” said Mignot. “We are going to turn it around completely.”
