{"id":611522,"date":"2025-09-19T11:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=611522"},"modified":"2025-09-19T11:01:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:01:52","slug":"multichoice-takeover-clears-major-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/611522-multichoice-takeover-clears-major-hurdle.html","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice takeover clears major hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has approved the transfer of control of Orbicom&#8217;s electronic communications and radio frequency spectrum licences to Canal+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orbicom is MultiChoice&#8217;s signal distributor, and the approval is an essential step in progressing Canal+&#8217;s takeover of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orbicom submitted the applications to transfer control of its electronic communications service (I-ECS), individual electronic communications network services (I-ECNS), and Radio Frequency Spectrum licences in November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Icasa subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/587651-big-step-in-canal-multichoice-takeover.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/587651-big-step-in-canal-multichoice-takeover.html\">published its application<\/a>, inviting stakeholders to submit their comments, in March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The I-ECNS licence authorises holders to roll out and operate electronic communications networks on a provincial or national scale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, the I-ECS licence lets holders provide services to customers using their own or somebody else&#8217;s network infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Radio Frequency Spectrum licence enables an organisation to use a specific radio frequency band within a defined geographic area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Icasa revealed that it had approved the transfer via a notice in the Government Gazette, published on Thursday, 18 September 2025. It granted the approval on 28 August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulator said it evaluated the licence control transfer application on the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Promotion of competition in the ICT sector;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interests of consumers; and,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Equity ownership by Historically Disadvantaged Persons (HDPs).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Interested parties had 14 working days to submit their written representations, with the submission date ending on Monday, 7 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The transfer of control of Orbicom&#8217;s licences to Canal+ forms part of its acquisition of MultiChoice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The French media giant had gradually brought up Multichoice shares in the open market since October 2020 and hit the mandatory offer threshold of 35% ownership in early 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Canal+ offered MultiChoice R125 per share after some back-and-forth with MultiChoice and a reprimand from the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The offer valued MultiChoice at over R55 billion. The deal will cost Canal+ R30 billion in cash, and it has continued acquiring MultiChoice shares while the offer is under consideration until May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The RTP&#8217;s latest report on Canal+&#8217;s shareholding in MultiChoice was published in May 2024, revealing that Canal+&#8217;s ownership had climbed to 45.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Canal+ was legally mandated to offer to acquire the DStv owner, the deal was subject to various regulatory hurdles \u2014 some of which have been cleared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These hurdles include securing approvals from bodies like the Financial Surveillance Department, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the TRP, and Icasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ICT policy legal expert Lisa Thornton previously told MyBroadband that the deal&#8217;s success will depend on its structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MultiChoice and Canal+ had to find a way to limit the latter&#8217;s voting rights to 20% \u2014 a requirement for broadcasting licences under the Electronic Communications Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal also had to meet Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) rules set out by Icasa. The rules stipulate that licencees must be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve this, MultiChoice South Africa will be carved out as an independent entity referred to as LicenceCo. It will hold the company&#8217;s South African operating licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LicenceCo will also contract with MultiChoice&#8217;s subscribers in South Africa, and the remainder of the group&#8217;s video entertainment assets will remain with the MultiChoice Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The MultiChoice Group&#8217;s shareholding in LicenceCo will give it a 49% economic interest and a 20% share of voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;MultiChoice Group will retain its existing 75% direct interest in MultiChoice South Africa, excluding LicenceCo. Phuthuma Nathi will similarly retain its existing 25% interest in MultiChoice South Africa,&#8221; the companies said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It added that these relate to providing content, technology, subscriber management and support, among other functions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s communications regulator has green lit the transfer of control of MultiChoice-owned Orbicom&#8217;s electronic communications and radio frequency 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":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,18090,94863,94861,475,251],"class_list":["post-611522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-independent-communications-authority-of-south-africa-icasa","tag-individual-electronic-communications-network-service-licence-i-ecns","tag-individual-electronic-communications-service-licence-i-ecs","tag-multichoice","tag-radio-frequency-spectrum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611522"}],"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=611522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611533,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611522\/revisions\/611533"}],"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=611522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}