End of Showmax in South Africa

MultiChoice has announced the shutdown of Showmax following a comprehensive review of its streaming activities. This marks the end of the streaming platform that was intended to drive the company’s future growth. 

“This decision was made by the Showmax Board of Directors and reflects the continued focus of MultiChoice, a CANAL+ company, on financial discipline and investment optimisation,” the company said in a statement. 

It also noted that the company and its offerings are operating in an increasingly competitive and capital-intensive global streaming environment. 

“The substantial annual losses experienced by the Showmax business have proved unsustainable,” it said. 

“The decision to phase out Showmax reflects our focus on building a sustainable, competitive business for the long term in an increasingly demanding global streaming environment.”

The decision to discontinue Showmax services will not involve any retrenchments, with the company engaging with employees throughout the process. 

“This evolution is also consistent with the ambition of MultiChoice, a CANAL+ Company, to deploy its in-house large-scale streaming platform capable of meeting the expectations of African and international consumers,” MultiChoice said. 

“CANAL+ will continue to invest in premium content for MultiChoice subscribers, technological innovation and strategic partnerships to consolidate its leadership in the African entertainment market.”  

Details regarding the expanded content offering and platform upgrades will be shared in due course, MultiChoice said. 

Canal+ gained control of MultiChoice, part-owner of streaming service Showmax with Comcast, in late 2025 in a deal that valued the African platform at about $3 billion (around R53 billion at the time).

The French giant expects its combined entertainment platform to deliver more than €400 million (R7.6 billion) in earnings before interest, tax and amortisation, and about €300 million (R5.7 billion) in free cash flow cost savings by 2030. 

Canal+ is working to start growing MultiChoice’s subscriber numbers after the company lost almost three million customers over the past two financial years.

It  has already renegotiated a contract for set-top boxes and has provided cheaper units since November 2025. 

MultiChoice was created by Cape Town-based Naspers. In 2019, the company was spun off from Naspers and in 2024, Canal+ made a takeover approach that proved successful at the end of 2025.