Canal+ is moving to embed MultiChoice’s streaming service directly into the living room, in the clearest sign yet that the enlarged group is rebuilding its distribution around connected televisions rather than satellite decoders.

From 1 June, the DStv Stream app is being pre-installed on all new Samsung smart TVs sold across 18 English- and Portuguese-speaking African markets, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Canal+ described it as the first pre-installation of a MultiChoice streaming app in these markets and said it extends an arrangement with Samsung that already spans 40 markets in Europe, French-speaking Africa and Asia.

As a result, DStv Stream will sit on the Samsung home screen out the box, alongside the likes of Netflix and YouTube, with no download required. The app carries the full Fifa World Cup 2026, the English Premier League and domestic and international rugby, alongside general entertainment — and the timing, weeks into a World Cup, is no accident.

Canal+, which completed its takeover of MultiChoice last year, has spent recent months consolidating its streaming operations, shutting the loss-making Showmax service and folding its content into DStv Stream to create a single streaming hub. Pre-loading that hub onto a leading smart-TV brand is a distribution play aimed at capturing viewers as they shift away from satellite and towards streaming.

Shifting viewing habits

It also offers an example of the commercial logic Canal+ has used to justify the MultiChoice combination. David Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa and MultiChoice Group, said the expansion deepens a longstanding Samsung relationship. As viewing habits shift, he said, making the group’s content easier to find on connected devices is central to the strategy. It signals that the future of DStv lies as much in an app on a Samsung remote as in a dish on the roof. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media