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MultiChoice still dominates Africa’s broadcasting market with 14.5 million subscribers, but its fast-growing bets now sit outside traditional television: in decoder-free Internet streaming and payments.
The company, which previously operated the now-shuttered Showmax streaming platform, is now leaning on a two-pronged strategy built around DStv Stream, its premium Internet TV service, and payments business, Moment, to offset pressure on its traditional pay-TV operations.
DStv Stream reflects Canal+’s effort to streamline MultiChoice’s overlapping streaming bets after years of heavy losses and rising platform costs at Showmax, in a market where subscriber scale never matched the level of investment. Rather than exiting streaming, MultiChoice is consolidating around higher-margin businesses as it seeks more capital-efficient sources of growth.
Why DStv Stream works better
Unlike Showmax, DStv Stream was never designed as a low-cost mass-market platform.
Originally launched as DStv Now before a July 2023 relaunch, DStv Stream offers the company’s full premium pay-TV experience over the Internet, including more than 150 live channels, the SuperSport network, news channels, and on-demand programming.
The platform targets consumers willing to pay for premium entertainment but unwilling to install a satellite dish or decoder.
Showmax, a mobile-first, on-demand service, depended on attracting millions of lower-paying users to justify its licencing and content spend. DStv Stream, by contrast, generates significantly higher revenue per customer because it attracts a more premium subscriber base anchored by premium content.
Following its relaunch in 2023, DStv Stream’s standalone subscriber base grew 139%, with more than 90% of those being entirely new customers who had never subscribed to MultiChoice, according to its 2024 report.