The story
Early years (1983–1991)
In 1983, Koos Bekker wrote a paper at Columbia University describing the idea that led to M-Net, and along with two others pitched the idea to Naspers, which acquired a 26% share, leading to Naspers executive Ton Vosloo serving as chair of the board. M-Net lost money in its first few years.
Expansion (1992–2017)
In 1993, M-Net was divided into two divisions, one focused on transmission of the entertainment channels and the other on cellphone operations, signal distribution and subscriber management. This second division became MultiChoice. The company had been granted a licence to broadcast into Namibia in 1991 and, as a result, in 1996 MultiChoice Africa was established.
In 1992, analogue services were launched in 20 African countries and lasted until 1996 when digital services replaced them. This division, called DStv (Digital Satellite Television), had first been launched in South Africa on October 6, 1995, making it the first direct-to-home digital pay-TV service outside the US.
In 2002, a "Dual-view" decoder was launched by DStv which allowed the simultaneous viewing of two different channels from a single satellite feed. In 2006, a service to mobile devices was trialed and officially launched in 2011 as DStv Mobile (now called DStv Stream, renamed from DStv Now then DStv App).
In October 2011, MultiChoice Nigeria launched GOtv, an affordable terrestrial platform & a compatriot to DStv, which broadcasts all channels from DStv Access and some from DStv Compact packages in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries.
MultiChoice broadcasts in 50 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Cape Verde and Madagascar. Local language programme content is available in French and Portuguese in certain African territories, as well as the 11 official languages within South Africa.
IPO and consolidation (2018–2023)
In September 2018, Multichoice's then parent company Naspers announced that it would separate its video entertainment business from the bulk of Naspers and list it separately on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The new company would be called MultiChoice Group and would include MultiChoice South Africa, MultiChoice Africa, Showmax Africa, and Irdeto. The listing took place on 27 February 2019, with share code MCG. The share was immediately eligible for inclusion in the JSE Top40, the list of the largest 40 shares by market capitalisation.
In October 2020, French media company Groupe Canal+ acquired 12% stake in MultiChoice. In November, MultiChoice acquired 20% stake in Nigeria's sports betting company, BetKing with plans to launch it in South Africa.
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In June 2021, they increased their stake to 49%. In February 2023, French media company Groupe Canal+ acquired a 30.27% stake in the company, which eventually increased to 31.7%.
Acquisition by Canal+ S.A. (2024–2025)
Nearly a year later, on February 1, 2024, Canal+ made an offer to MultiChoice's investors to acquire remaining shares, subject to regulatory approval, offering a price of R105 per share, 40% higher than the price of R75 offered the previous day. MultiChoice rejected the offer believing it undervalued the company. Following a reprimand by the Takeover Regulation Panel, Canal+ revised its offer and upped its bid to R125 per share (67% higher than the MultiChoice share price). This valued MultiChoice at R55 billion.
In June 2024, Canal+ Group and MultiChoice released a joint circular with the French broadcaster that has obtained 45,2% of company shares with an interim board approving on the revised offer. Both companies made a filing to local regulators in September 2024 with the terms of the agreement remaining unchanged.
Under the deal, Canal+ will spin out MultiChoice SA's broadcasting licence which includes DStv as an independent entity to comply with the Electronic Communications Act, which prohibits foreign entities from owning more than 20%. New shareholders set to enter the transaction include Former Telkom's CEO Sipho Maseko's Afrifund Investment and businesswoman Sonja De Bruyn's Identity Partners that will form the entity known as LicenceCo to handle the operations in South Africa and give it 51% economic interest with the remaining 49% for Canal+.
The transaction was initially set to close in April 2025 but was delayed to October 2025.
In May 2025, the South African Competition Commission recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the proposed takeover of Multichoice by Canal+, with conditions. According to the Commission, the proposed takeover is unlikely to reduce or prevent competition in any market.
The conditions applicable to the approval include addressing employment concerns, and increasing the shareholding of historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs) and workers in Orbicom and LicenceCo. The Commission also wants the groups to commit to further supplier development and the merged entity’s continued operation from South Africa, enabling plurality of television news and export promotion. Multichoice and Canal+ have agreed to a moratorium on retrenchments for a period of three years following the merger implementation date.
Finally, the parties also agreed to continue certain corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as skills development in the audiovisual industry, and sports development.
In September 2025, it was reported that MultiChoice had begun the restructuring required to facilitate the Canal acquisition. This process involves splitting off the South African entity from the main group, so that it can become independent, and majority-owned and controlled by historically disadvantaged groups.
In the same month, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) approved the transfer of control of MultiChoice’s signal distributor, Orbicom’s, electronic communications and radio frequency spectrum licenses to Canal+. The application was submitted in November 2024, and ICASA opened an invitation to stakeholders to submit comments in March. Orbicom's electronic communications service (I-ECS), individual electronic communications network services (I-ECNS), and Radio Frequency Spectrum licenses were approved for transfer.
On September 22, 2025, it was announced that Canal+ had finalized its takeover of the South African firm, in a $2 billion deal that took two years to complete.
Post-acquisition (2025–)
In September 2025, new leadership was announced for Canal+ Africa, of which Multichoice formed a part. Former CEO of Multichoice, Calvo Mawela, would become Canal+ Africa's Chairman. David Mignot was appointed as the division's CEO.
In the same month, Canal+ Africa's CEO, David Mignot, said that customers should expect Canal+ and Multichoice companies to combine their content catalogues. Mignot said Canal+ creates 4,000 hours of African content in up to 15 languages each year, which customers would be able to access in addition to MultiChoice’s 6,000 hours of local content produced annually. He further said that combined, the companies would offer approximately 10,000 hours of content per year, in 20 to 35 languages.
Mignot also said that Canal+ Africa was assessing the viability of maintaining three over-the-top (OTT) streaming services (Showmax, DStv Stream, and its own OTT service).
From Wikipedia’s article on MultiChoice, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5