by Thinus Ferreira
After acquiring MultiChoice, Canal+ is shutting down MultiChoice's hugely loss-making Showmax video streaming service after 11 years.
Canal+ announced the "discontinuation" of Showmax that MultiChoice relaunched two years ago in partnership with Comcast's NBCUniversal.
Canal+ said it had done a "comprehensive review of its streaming activities". The shuttering comes after Maxime Saada, Canal+ CEO, in January said on an investors' call that Showmax was a flop.
According to Canal+, the decision to axe Showmax "was made by the Showmax board of directors and reflects the
continued focus of MultiChoice, a Canal+ company, on financial
discipline and investment optimisation, in an increasingly competitive
and capital-intensive global streaming environment".
"The substantial
annual losses experienced by the Showmax business have
proved unsustainable. 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."
Canal+ is unable to let go of any staff working at MultiChoice for Showmax, since one of the agreements with the Competition Competition of South Africa for the takeover of MultiChoice was that there won't be any retrenchments for three years.
"The decision to discontinue Showmax services will not involve any
retrenchments," Canal+ says in its statement. "The group will be engaging and supporting employees
through various transition options."
Ending Showmax is, according to Canal+, "also consistent with the ambition of MultiChoice to deploy its in-house large-scale streaming platform capable
of meeting the expectations of African and international consumers".
"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."
"Further details regarding our expanded content offering and platform upgrades
will be shared in due course. We want to reassure our Showmax
subscribers that they are our priority as we evolve our services to
deliver a superior streaming experience."
Showmax was launched in August 2015 and relaunched in February 2024 in partnership with NBCUnviversal holding a 30% interest in the venture.
Since then MultiChoice and NBCUniversal have collectively poured billions of rand in the loss-making streamer that failed to reach the extremely ambitious subscriber growth targets that MultiChoice promised to investors before launch.
