The African streaming landscape loses a major player today. MultiChoice has officially announced the discontinuation of Showmax, its flagship streaming service, following years of unsustainable financial losses. The decision comes after a comprehensive review of the platform’s performance in an increasingly crowded African streaming market, where competing with global giants proved financially devastating.
Launched in 2015 as Africa’s homegrown answer to Netflix, Showmax built a loyal following through original productions like The Real Housewives of Nairobi, Spinners, and Shaka iLembe. But the economics never worked. The platform recorded R2.6 billion in trading losses for the year ending March 2024, which ballooned to R4.9 billion by March 2025, dragging MultiChoice’s overall trading profit down by nearly half.
The numbers tell a brutal story. “The substantial annual losses experienced by the Showmax business have proved unsustainable,” the company confirmed in its official statement. MultiChoice CEO David Mignot had previously offered a candid assessment: “Financially speaking, business-wise speaking, the thing is not flying” .
Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada, whose company recently completed its acquisition of MultiChoice, was equally direct, acknowledging Showmax was “not a commercial success, it’s quite obvious”. The French media giant inherited the struggling platform when it took control of MultiChoice in September 2025, and the shutdown decision came swiftly.
Showmax’s failure highlights deeper challenges in the African streaming market that even well-funded platforms cannot easily overcome. Despite roughly 600 million smartphones across the continent, infrastructure gaps remain crippling. Only 4–5 percent of Africa’s 100 million electrified, TV-owning households have access to fibre networks, leaving most unable to reliably stream content at home.
Broadband penetration remains limited, and mobile data costs stay prohibitively high for consistent streaming in many markets. Over-the-top streaming penetration sits at less than 5 percent across Sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting the addressable market is far smaller than global optimism once assumed.
Showmax’s trajectory included a high-stakes gamble. In 2023, MultiChoice partnered with NBCUniversal and Sky to integrate Peacock technology into a revamped Showmax 2.0, which relaunched across 44 African markets in early 2024. The new platform offered premium international content, live English Premier League football, and a three-tier pricing model designed to capture subscribers across income levels.
But subscriber growth fell catastrophically short of projections. The technological upgrade and content investment could not overcome the fundamental economics of streaming in Africa.
The shutdown carries one significant relief. MultiChoice confirmed the decision “will not involve any retrenchments,” with the group planning to “engage and support employees through various transition options”. This commitment aligns with Canal+’s public pledge not to cut South African staff for three years following the acquisition.
Showmax will continue operating temporarily. Subscribers received emails assuring them that “at the moment there will be no interruption to your current service. You can continue streaming as usual, and no action is required from you at this time”. Further details about timelines and transition plans will follow.
The company emphasized that streaming remains central to its strategy. “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”.
This likely means a pivot toward Canal+’s own streaming technology and a sharper focus on DStv’s existing digital offerings. The group plans to “deploy its in-house large-scale streaming platform capable of meeting the expectations of African and international consumers”.
For African viewers and creators, Showmax’s demise carries a sobering lesson. Local streaming platforms face structural and economic barriers that even substantial investment cannot easily overcome. The African streaming market remains dominated by global players with deeper pockets, leaving homegrown competitors struggling to survive the math
