Canal+’s investment in MultiChoice, the parent of DStv and SuperSport, could mark a new era for pay-TV in South Africa, with data, local content and sports rights reshaping the market. That is the argument made by former Telkom chief executive Sipho Maseko, who has invested in Canal+, on the Investec Minds podcast, as reported by Daily Investor on 6 September 2026 under the headline “End of an era for DStv and SuperSport in South Africa”. The story is about how the platforms may change, not about either brand closing down.
What Maseko said about Canal+ and viewing
According to Daily Investor, Maseko argued that Canal+ has deep experience in producing, curating, acquiring and distributing content. He said smartphones, digital platforms and faster internet will keep increasing how much video people watch, to the point where total viewing could become effectively unlimited. Short-form video is growing and will coexist with movies and TV series, and broadcasters must now compete with it. Consumers creating and sharing their own videos adds to the volume and variety of content.
For DStv, he said, the task will be to understand what different audiences want and how their habits vary across markets. He pointed to Canal+’s advanced data and analytics capabilities as the tool for making those decisions.
Sport and the data behind rights
The sports section is the part most relevant to advertisers. Maseko called South Africa an important market for Canal+ with clear regional differences in viewing: the Western Cape may tune in to Springbok rugby, while large parts of KwaZulu-Natal watch football. Viewing data, he said, can show which matches and competitions audiences actually watch, and that could shape which rights are worth paying for.
He named the FIFA World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations and the Rugby World Cup as major drivers of viewing growth, and said Formula One does not draw comparable viewership. Citing the English Premier League, where a small number of major fixtures attract a large share of viewers, he suggested the same could apply to South African football, and that local matches involving smaller teams could draw more viewers than some international fixtures, depending on the audience measured. That data, he said, helps broadcasters decide how to package sports content, which could change how DStv acquires, bundles and prices sports for customers.
What it means for advertisers and small businesses
The Daily Investor report contains no specific financial or viewership figures, and no announced changes to channels, pricing or advertising rates, so there is nothing yet to act on. For businesses that buy television advertising, including property developers and agents who have used DStv and SuperSport to reach urban and peri-urban audiences, the practical step is to watch for official communications from MultiChoice and Canal+ and to check any claim about audience reach against the company’s own reporting.
The broader point in Maseko’s comments is that audience data may increasingly decide what gets broadcast and how it is sold. If sports rights are bought and packaged on the basis of who actually watches which matches, advertisers could in time see more granular audience information, though that is a possibility rather than a confirmed change. Until MultiChoice or Canal+ publish concrete plans, the headline is best read as one investor’s view of where pay-TV is heading, not a roadmap.
