Groupe Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada on Thursday acknowledged that Showmax, the streaming platform owned by MultiChoice Group, has failed to achieve commercial success and has been a significant drag on the group’s financial performance.
Speaking during an investor call following Canal+’s acquisition last year of control of MultiChoice, Saada said Showmax has “been losing a lot of money over the last few years” and confirmed that reducing those losses forms part of the cost synergies Canal+ expects to extract from the deal.
“Showmax is not a commercial success, it’s quite obvious,” Saada told investment analysts. “There were a lot of dedicated investments on the marketing side, on the content side and on the technology side, and we are in a position to reduce those investments – and yes, they are included in the synergies.”
While Saada declined to quantify how much of the targeted cost savings would come from Showmax, he described the contribution as “significant”, adding that Canal+ sees scope to improve the economics of the streaming business materially without causing undue damage to subscriber numbers.
Saada stressed that Canal+ would not pursue abrupt cost-cutting that could undermine longer-term growth, describing a more measured approach to Showmax’s restructuring.
“The important thing is growth. We are very careful to make sure we don’t lose potentially valuable subscribers,” he said. “Otherwise it would be like a Band-Aid, and we’re not going to do it that way.”
He added that Canal+ has considerable flexibility because of the scale of past investment in Showmax, but said he could not provide further detail because the platform operates as a joint venture and Canal+ must take its partners into account.
Costly relaunch
Showmax was relaunched in February 2024 following a major overhaul led by MultiChoice and its partner, Comcast’s NBCUniversal, using NBCU’s Peacock streaming platform. MultiChoice owns 70% of the Showmax venture, with NBCUniversal holding 30%. Saada said Canal+ is engaging with Comcast on the future of Showmax, but declined to comment further on those discussions.
MultiChoice had positioned the relaunch of Showmax as a reset designed to make Showmax competitive against global streaming giants such as Netflix and Disney+, particularly in African markets. But the investment required to rebuild the platform weighed heavily on earnings, even as subscriber growth lagged expectations.
Read: Canal+ eyes billions of rand in cost savings from MultiChoice deal
Analysts have long questioned whether Showmax could reach scale and profitability in a market characterised by low broadband penetration, limited disposable income and intense competition for content rights.
Saada’s comments suggest Canal+ is reassessing Showmax’s role within the broader group as it prioritises profitability and cost discipline following the acquisition of MultiChoice.
Although Canal+ believes Africa remains a long-term growth opportunity for pay TV and streaming, Saada indicated that Showmax’s past losses would not be tolerated indefinitely and that the platform’s cost structure would be brought into line as part of the wider integration effort.
Canal+ has said it will provide a fuller strategic update on MultiChoice, including its plans for Africa and streaming, when it releases full-year results on 11 March 2026. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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