{"id":629620,"date":"2026-02-18T09:59:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=629620"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:13:21","slug":"multichoice-is-getting-hammered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/629620-multichoice-is-getting-hammered.html","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice is getting hammered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PressPulse\u2019s latest media sentiment report<\/a> shows that MultiChoice has suffered significant reputational damage after the Canal+ acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice has long been criticised for the price of its DStv service, which had enjoyed a 20-year monopoly in the pay-TV market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many people still subscribed to the service due to its excellent SuperSport offering and its quality entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its technology was top-notch, its service levels were very good, and it was behind many iconic South African series, documentaries, and sports sponsorships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, media reports about MultiChoice and DStv were a mix of positive developments and negativity towards the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, since Canal+ acquired MultiChoice and delisted the company from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, sentiment shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice\u2019s DStv service started to water down its offering, with what some described as its most aggressive content purge in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A significant blow came in January 2026, when four third-party channels were removed following the closure of Paramount Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same happened with sporting events. In a shock development, SuperSport did not carry the 2026 Winter Olympics. It has also cut niche events, such as the World Darts Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production houses for channels like kykNET and Mzansi Magic have reportedly faced delays in getting money, with local contracts piling up in Paris awaiting approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues have been blamed on Canal+\u2019s cost-cutting measures in its attempts to turn MultiChoice around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the regulatory approval from the South African Competition Tribunal, Canal+ committed not to cut staff for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that it has to find other areas where it can cut costs, which include SuperSport and DStv channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice is getting hammered in the press<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PressPulse\u2019s latest media sentiment report showed that MultiChoice\u2019s reputation has taken a hammering over the last three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PressPulse is an online media-sentiment tracking platform that developed a custom artificial intelligence (AI) system for measuring sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tracks South Africa\u2019s top business publications and measures companies\u2019 success in achieving positive exposure in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sentiment ranking is based on the number of positive, neutral, or negative articles and the reach and influence of the publication where they are published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each company is assigned a sentiment score. A positive score indicates overall positive exposure, while a negative score indicates negative exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The score’s size indicates the impact of the exposure. A big positive score, for example, shows that a company enjoyed highly impactful positive exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press Pulse\u2019s sentiment analysis showed that MultiChoice had a negative sentiment score of 21, which is unprecedented for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netflix, in comparison, has a stable positive sentiment score. This is what one could expect from an entertainment company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chart below shows MultiChoice\u2019s media sentiment score over the last three months, with Netflix\u2019s score as a benchmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PressPulse\u2019s latest media sentiment report shows that MultiChoice has suffered significant reputational damage after the Canal+ acquisition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":569667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,85,475,101826],"class_list":["post-629620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-dstv","tag-multichoice","tag-presspulse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629620"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629687,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629620\/revisions\/629687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}