A rather candid assessment of its new African acquisition sees French media giant Groupe Canal declaring MultiChoice-owned streaming platform Showmax commercially unsuccessful while planning to significantly cut investment, pivoting a multi-billion-dollar deal toward cost savings rather than digital growth.
The move follows Canal gaining control of the MultiChoice Group in a USD 3 B deal finalised in September 2025 . Canal CEO Maxime Saada announced as the group outlined a plan to extract over USD 479 M in annual cost synergies from the combined company by 2030 .
Showmax is not a commercial success. It's quite obvious, Saada said bluntly during a recent presentation. We are in a position to reduce those investments I wont say how much, but it is significant . Chief Financial Officer Amandine Ferre described Showmaxs ongoing losses as not acceptable for us .
