DStv owner’s big year
2025 will be the most important year in the recent history of DStv parent company MultiChoice, with a major deal set to shape the future of South Africa’s biggest private broadcaster.
MultiChoice hopes to complete a transaction in 2025 that will see it being acquired by Vivendi SE’s Canal+.
The French media giant has been a major shareholder in MultiChoice for several years but has reached an important ownership threshold. It gradually increased its stake in the company, eventually exceeding 35%.
Under South Africa’s business takeover regulations, breaching that threshold required that it make a mandatory offer to acquire MultiChoice.
MultiChoice rejected its initial offer to pay R109 per remaining share in early 2024, but an independent board found a revised offer of R125 per share to be “fair and reasonable.”
The board recommended that MultiChoice shareholders accept the offer once it became unconditional, which the two broadcasters hope can be achieved by April 2025.
The development has seen MultiChoice’s share price jump over 30% in 2024, reaching a peak around R120 in April.
Despite the high share price, Canal+ continued to increase its MultiChoice shareholding to over 45% by June 2024. At that stage, acquiring the remaining shares would cost the company about R54 billion.
Buying MultiChoice will make Canal+ a true broadcasting giant in Africa, which is considered to have much more room for subscriber growth than continents with more developed countries and Internet penetration.
Canal+ has over 26 million subscribers in 50 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, and Oceania.
The company already has a strong foothold in francophone Africa. Its Canal+ Afrique subsidiary operates in 23 countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana.
On the other hand, MultiChoice’s biggest subscriber bases are in anglophone Africa. Aside from South Africa, its major markets include Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Although it only has a physical presence in 16 countries, its products are available in 50 African countries. As of September 2024, DStv had 19.3 million customers across the continent.
Acquiring DStv’s products and customers will make Canal+ one of the world’s top five broadcasting and streaming companies and the largest outside the US.
One of the big benefits of establishing a foothold in South Africa is significantly lower production costs. Canal+ will also inherit vast experience and resources to produce popular Africa-relevant content.
It may also look to get rid of MultiChoice subsidiaries that are not related to its core broadcasting or streaming services.
From a customer perspective, seasoned television journalist Thinus Ferreira does not believe the deal will change much.
Regulatory obstacles looming large
The takeover is still far from complete, with several regulatory hurdles that need to be cleared over the next few months.
Firstly, the Competition Commission is considering MultiChoice and Canal+’s joint merger control filing, which they submitted in September 2024.
Due to the large merger, the transaction will also require approval from the Competition Tribunal following a recommendation from the Commission.
The competition authorities must consider whether the takeover will result in an anti-competitive environment.
MultiChoice is the dominant pay-TV broadcaster in South Africa, but its business has suffered due to the rising adoption of international video streaming services.
Ironically, its best chance at competing with Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video might very well be a takeover by an international player.
Another challenge will be ensuring that the deal meets South Africa’s foreign broadcast restrictions, which limit foreign entities like Canal+ from holding more than 20% of a local broadcaster’s voting rights.
Canal+ and MultiChoice are currently addressing this particular issue with the Independent Communications of the Authority of South Africa.
Bloomberg reported that billionaire Patrice Motsepe was in talks with Canal+ to potentially join the deal and ensure its voting control structure meets the necessary requirements.
The table below summarises MultiChoice’s timeline for finalising the takeover, pending the outcome of regulatory considerations.
| Date | Development |
|---|---|
| 8 April 2025 | Offer becomes wholly unconditional |
| 9 April 2025 | Finalisation date: Announcement of the offer being unconditional in all respects, subject to receipt of Takeover Regulation Panel compliance certificate |
| 17 April 2025 | First payment date to shareholders who accepted the offer by the finalisation date. |
| 22 April 2025 | Last day for trading in MultiChoice shares to participate in the offer. |
| 23 April 2025 | MultiChoice shares trade after the offer |
| 25 April 2025 | Offer closes at 12:00 (noon) Second payment date to shareholders who accepted the offer after the finalisation date. |
| 29 April 2025 | Results of the offer to be released on SENS and ANS for investors |
| 30 April 2025 | Results of the offer to be published in the media |
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