MultiChoice will close four DStv channels next month, three of them carrying local content, while adding four SuperSport channels.

The move comes despite local content commitments Canal+ made to get its takeover of the pay-TV operator approved.

M-Net Movies 1, KykNet Lekker, Mzansi Bioskop and Mzansi Music stop broadcasting on 16 September, MultiChoice said in a statement on Friday.

From 19 August, SuperSport’s line-up is renamed and expanded: SuperSport Football Plus becomes the home for premium football including selected Uefa Champions League matches, SuperSport Africa carries South African and African sport, SuperSport KickOff takes overflow football fixtures, and a new SuperSport Extra 2 adds capacity for when major events run simultaneously.

“As viewing habits continue to change, MultiChoice is refining the DStv channel line-up to match,” the company said. “Rather than spreading similar content across many channels, we’re concentrating on fewer, stronger channels, giving subscribers a cleaner, easier-to-navigate line-up and a better viewing experience overall.”

Local content

Three of the four closures are local. Mzansi Bioskop screened South African films and served as a route to air for emerging local filmmakers. Mzansi Music carried local music programming. KykNet Lekker was an Afrikaans channel aimed at DStv Access subscribers, meaning that cut hits the cheapest package on the platform.

Local content is not a neutral subject for Canal+. Conditions attached to its 2025 acquisition of MultiChoice included undertakings on local content production and support for small black-owned suppliers, and the Competition Commission has said it is monitoring compliance.

Read: Why Canal+ is betting DStv’s future on live sport

Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot has said it would be “a strategically huge mistake” for the group to cut local content investment, pointing to a commitment of about €100-million to accelerate local production.

The cuts extend a pattern. Showmax was shut down on 30 April and its content folded into DStv Stream, weeks after Mignot told TechCentral the platform “can’t continue” in its current form. The group confirmed the closure in March, and Canal+ later bought out Showmax’s minority shareholder before shutting it.

MultiChoice Group CEO David Mignot. Image: (c) Aurelien Pierron

BET Africa and MTV Base went at the start of January, along with CBS Reality and CBS Justice. Sponsorships of arts and film festivals have been dropped. Canal+ is targeting more than €400-million in annual cost savings by 2030.

Sport is a different story. SuperSport is increasingly the only part of MultiChoice with genuine pricing power: for as long as it holds the rights South African viewers will pay handsomely for, the linear bundle has a floor. Four new sport channels against four fewer entertainment channels is what that logic looks like on a programming schedule.

MultiChoice held DStv prices flat in April, breaking a long run of annual increases, in what Mignot described as an effort to stabilise the business and win subscribers back. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media