A French group going global south
Canal+ is a French pay-TV and premium-content group, spun off from Vivendi and listed in London in December 2024. In 2025 it completed the acquisition of MultiChoice — the African pay-TV giant behind DStv, GOtv, SuperSport and Showmax — for roughly $2bn for the shares it did not already own, lifting its combined base to about 42.3m subscribers. (The ~£2.6bn figure sometimes cited was Canal+'s own market capitalisation at its London listing, not the MultiChoice price.)
The centre of gravity is shifting south. SuperSport's African football rights are now the strategic core, partially offsetting a structurally challenged French home market — where Canal+ is no longer the core Ligue 1 broadcaster and has launched legal proceedings against the LFP over its rights process, while holding exclusive French Champions League rights to 2031.
Subscribers, rights, and the African pivot
How the business actually functions
Canal+'s identity is moving south: Africa, through SuperSport and DStv, now anchors subscriber scale and the football thesis, offsetting a French market where Ligue 1 rights value has collapsed. The litigation against the LFP underlines a strategic retreat at home — Canal+ would rather contest the process than overpay for a league that went direct-to-consumer out of necessity.
The Champions League is now its premium French anchor through 2031, but the resale of matches to beIN shows even that is being financially de-risked. The integration challenge is MultiChoice itself, whose African subscriber base faces currency and consumer pressure, making the 42.3m combined figure a number to watch rather than bank.
Direction in 2026
The posture is integrating MultiChoice and pivoting toward African football dominance while contesting the Ligue 1 process at home. The open questions are the integrated group's total football-rights spend, whether Canal+ returns to any Ligue 1 distribution role, how MultiChoice's African base performs post-integration, and the timeline to SuperSport profitability under Canal+ ownership.
- TechAfrica, Variety (MultiChoice completion, FY2025 results)
- SportsPro, Front Office Sports (Champions League rights)
- Broadband TV News (Ligue 1 litigation)
- Note: MultiChoice price ~$2bn, not the ~£2.6bn London-listing market cap