{"id":634983,"date":"2026-03-22T11:04:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=634983"},"modified":"2026-03-22T11:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:16:16","slug":"south-african-jobs-on-the-line-after-showmax-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/634983-south-african-jobs-on-the-line-after-showmax-shutdown.html","title":{"rendered":"South African jobs on the line after Showmax shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While MultiChoice has been blocked from retrenching any permanent South African employees up to mid-2028, Showmax’s discontinuation will likely cost jobs in the local film industry in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome was part of discussions between members of Parliament and two regulatory entities that approved French firm Canal+’s acquisition of MultiChoice in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Commission and Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) briefed the communications portfolio committee on their decisions this past week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call to present reasons for their approvals came after Canal+’s decisions regarding local content production, prime content acquisition, and Showmax’s shutdown at the end of April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ decided to terminate the service after several months of due diligence of its financial and operational performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a recent briefing on its 2025 annual results, the company labelled the service an “expensive failure.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice attributed roughly R8.7 billion in trading losses over its last three financial years to the relaunch of Showmax, content acquisition, and platform licensing fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the shutdown, MultiChoice is migrating existing Showmax content to a dedicated location within the DStv Stream app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice has spent billions of rand developing original movies and series for Showmax, including titles Blood Psalms<\/em>, Devilsdorp<\/em>, Die Kantoor<\/em>, Shaka Ilembe<\/em>, and Spinners<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In commentary to Eyewitness News<\/a>, broadcasting journalist Thinus Ferreira said he believes Canal+’s cost-cutting will include slashing budgets on these high-profile shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Get ready for more lower-quality content, cheaper production, cheaper cost per minute, reality-type, housewife shows, and things like that,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MPs have similar concerns. DA MP Tsholofelo Bodlani believes the approval of Canal+’s takeover failed to consider the entire value chain for South African content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EFF MP Sixolisa Gcilishe questioned how a French company would serve South African interests and asked whether Canal+ had not exploited a loophole in regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Commission approved the transaction on several conditions, including a three-year retrenchment moratorium and maintaining MultiChoice Group’s headquarters in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ “rationalising” South African property<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Inside MultiChoice’s Randburg headquarters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While there have been no cuts to permanent MultiChoice staff in South Africa, Canal+ has plans to “rationalise” its South African property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term is often used as a euphemism for selling off assets. Ferreira suspects that this could mean MultiChoice could offload its Randburg headquarters and lease it from the new owner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to cutting costs, it would potentially make a future HQ move or shutdown after the three-year retrenchment moratorium easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ has already begun chipping away at the MultiChoice HQ’s influence over DStv content, with the stripping of SuperSport’s acquisition powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also possible that Canal+ plans to dispose of equipment and infrastructure used in local productions, although most of this is operated and owned by contracted third-party studios. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Canal+ has made commitments regarding supplier development, including expenditure on local audiovisual content and the promotion of South African content in new markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Commission has told Parliament that it will investigate whether Canal+ is in breach of the takeover conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International companies boosting local film jobs <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Emily Rudd as Nami, In\u0303aki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, and Jacob Romero as Usopp in season 2 of One Piece.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Showmax’s international competitors have also spent millions of rands on productions in South Africa, helping to support local jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One major example is Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece<\/em>, which has been a major hit for the service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, titles like One Piece<\/em> have a global audience appeal. Video streaming giants won’t spend large amounts on local productions unless they have international monetisation potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many of Showmax’s productions could also be suitable for international audiences, a large part of its offering resonates primarily with locals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gcilishe believes that Showmax has been crucial in contributing to the national identity and pushing the South African narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Its discontinuation poses a serious risk of diminishing a critical distribution avenue for local content, particularly resulting in a cultural landscape overly influenced by international programmes,” Gcilishe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source close to MultiChoice also expressed concern in feedback to Rapport <\/a>that Canal+ would pull funding for local film festivals and South African channels like M-Net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice general entertainment content director Nomsa Philiso told the publication that the company’s commitment to African storytelling would not diminish with Showmax’s shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concerns are mounting over the knock-on effect of Showmax’s shutdown on the local film industry, particularly productions that resonate with South African cultures and languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":629706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[21383,3222,15137,12083,15139,475,18706,10876,17898,58930,32140,103949,3406,103950,62312],"class_list":["post-634983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-canal","tag-competition-commission","tag-film-industry","tag-job-cuts","tag-movies","tag-multichoice","tag-parliament","tag-parliamentary-portfolio-committee-on-communications","tag-rapport","tag-series","tag-showmax","tag-sixolisa-gcilishe","tag-thinus-ferreira","tag-tsholofelo-bodlani","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634983"}],"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\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634983"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635025,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634983\/revisions\/635025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}