45.2% shareholding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile the French media giant was legally mandated to offer to acquire Multichoice, the deal must still overcome several regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This includes securing approvals from the Financial Surveillance Department, the JSE, TRP, and Icasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ICT policy legal expert Lisa Thornton recently told MyBroadband that the deal’s success will depend on its structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The companies must find a way to continue limiting Canal+’s voting rights to 20% \u2014 a requirement for broadcasting licences under the Electronic Communications Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will also have to meet Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) rules set out by Icasa, which stipulate that licensees must be 30% owned by HDPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To comply, MultiChoice will be carved out as an independent entity, dubbed LicenceCo, to hold South African operating licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LicenceCo will also contract with MultiChoice’s South African subscribers, and the remainder of the group’s video entertainment assets will remain with the MultiChoice Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MultiChoice Group’s shareholding in LicenceCo will ultimately give it a 49% economic interest and 20% share of voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“MultiChoice Group will retain its existing 75% direct interest in MultiChoice South Africa, which will exclude LicenceCo. Phuthuma Nathi will similarly retain its existing 25% interest in MultiChoice South Africa,” the companies explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“LicenceCo will enter into various commercial agreements with MultiChoice Group subsidiaries in relation to the services currently provided to LicenceCo by other MultiChoice Group entities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These relate to, among other things, the provision of content, technology, subscriber management and support and other functions,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is evaluating Orbicom’s application to transfer control of network and spectrum licences to Canal+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":532957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,18090,475,99206,99207],"class_list":["post-587651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-multichoice","tag-network-licences","tag-radio-frequency-spectrum-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587651"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":587693,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587651\/revisions\/587693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}