{"id":632777,"date":"2026-03-11T10:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=632777"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:38:29","slug":"showmax-is-an-expensive-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/632777-showmax-is-an-expensive-failure.html","title":{"rendered":"Showmax is an expensive failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MultiChoice’s new owner, Canal+, has described the broadcaster’s over-the-top (OTT) platform, Showmax, as an “expensive failure”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement accompanying its unaudited full-year results, Canal+ said MultiChoice has faced significant challenges after experiencing impressive growth from 2010 to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said these include the combined effects of macroeconomic factors, strong inflation across most cost items, especially content, and a difficult transition to OTT with “the expensive failure of Showmax”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ said these factors negatively impacted MultiChoice’s profitability. The French media giant has already moved to eliminate the drain of Showmax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We recently announced that we were exiting the loss-making Showmax contract,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice announced its plans to shut down Showmax in early March 2026. The streaming platform was once positioned at the centre of MultiChoice’s growth strategy in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the OTT platform has recorded substantial annual losses, and MultiChoice said it had proved unsustainable in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive global streaming environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The decision to phase out Showmax reflects our focus on building a sustainable, competitive business for the long term in an increasingly demanding global streaming environment,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The decision to discontinue Showmax services will not involve any retrenchments. The Group will be engaging and supporting employees through various transition options.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The streamer sent an email to subscribers, in which it assured customers that there would be no immediate interruption of its existing service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You can continue streaming as usual, and no action is required from you at this time. We understand that this news may raise questions,” Showmax said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Showmax subscribers are a priority for us, and we are working on plans to ensure clear communication and a smooth transition when the time comes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter to customers said it would share further details well in advance, including timelines and any future steps, if required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

R8.7-billion trading loss in three years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Showmax’s financial results for the past few years have been grim. It reported trading losses of R1.2 billion in the 2023 financial year and R2.6 billion in the 2024 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trading loss ballooned to R4.9 billion in the 2025 financial year. At the same time, its revenue declined from R1.027 billion to R753 million over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice claimed the decline was only temporary, and it justified the massive financial burden Showmax was saddled with to relaunch the platform by relying on overly optimistic forecasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the broadcaster said that Africa is the final frontier for subscription video-on-demand growth. It said that’s the reason many international platforms were targeting the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice believed that Showmax would help it reach a combined subscriber base of 50 million users by 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To leverage the growth opportunity that the broadcaster believed existed, it entered into a partnership agreement and sold a 30% stake in Showmax to Comcast’s NBCUniversal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction concluded and took effect on 4 April 2023. MultiChoice retained a 70% controlling stake in the streamer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice’s initial projections accounted for Showmax reporting trading losses. It predicted that these losses would begin to decrease in the 2025 financial year. However, the opposite happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another damaging commitment was MultiChoice’s seven-year technology licensing agreement with NBCUniversal to use a Showmax-branded version of the Peacock streaming platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to MultiChoice’s 2024 annual results, it had contracted R6.83 billion in Peacock platform fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these commitments were not yet recognised as obligations in its financial reporting, MultiChoice was contractually obligated to pay them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By March 2025, the commitments had decreased to R5.819 billion as some obligations were fulfilled, but the remaining liability remained enormous relative to Showmax’s revenue base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, poor leadership and decision-making left Showmax with crippling financial commitments before it had a chance to reach scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showmax trading losses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The chart below shows Showmax’s reported trading losses from 2023 to 2025. The cumulative total for these trading losses over the three years is R8.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Canal+ says the “expensive failure of Showmax” contributed to MultiChoice’s challenges post 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":522261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,475,32140],"class_list":["post-632777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-multichoice","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632777"}],"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=632777"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632814,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632777\/revisions\/632814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}