Canal+, the French pay-television giant that completed its takeover of MultiChoice last year, has announced the discontinuation of Showmax, Africa’s leading home-grown streaming platform, citing mounting annual losses that it said had become impossible to sustain in an increasingly competitive global market.
The decision follows Canal+’s completion of its acquisition of MultiChoice in October 2025, after which it committed to providing a strategic update for the combined group during the first quarter of 2026. That review has concluded that Showmax is surplus to requirements and will be phased out as part of the French company’s aggressive cost-cutting drive.
“The substantial annual losses experienced by the Showmax business have proved unsustainable,” MultiChoice said in a statement. “The decision reflects the continued focus of MultiChoice, a Canal+ company, on financial discipline and investment optimisation in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive global streaming environment.”
Showmax was rolled out in South Africa in August 2015 and expanded to multiple territories across sub-Saharan Africa, accumulating over three million subscribers. Since March 2023, MultiChoice had operated the service in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which owns 30%, and the platform was relaunched in February 2024 using the technology behind Peacock, NBCUniversal’s flagship streaming product, with a new app and an expanded content slate including African originals.
Despite that overhaul, growth targets were not met. MultiChoice and NBCUniversal had invested approximately USD 309 million in equity funding to support content production and platform development, but the expected growth never materialised.
Canal+ confirmed the closure will not result in any job losses, saying it would engage with employees through various transition options. The company added it will continue to invest in premium content and technological innovation for MultiChoice subscribers.
Showmax’s shutdown removes one of the few African-owned alternatives to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+ from the continent’s rapidly evolving streaming market. MultiChoice has already begun redistributing select Showmax original productions to its linear television channels, including Africa Magic, M-Net, Mzansi Magic, and kykNET.
The closure has particular implications for Ghanaian consumers and the broader West African market, where Showmax had built a subscriber base and Canal+ has signalled ambitious plans to expand its own fibre broadband and content distribution operations. The pricing dispute between MultiChoice Ghana and the National Communications Authority (NCA) over DStv subscription fees remains unresolved, adding further uncertainty to the company’s near-term outlook in the country.
No shutdown date has been announced.
