Canal+ swooped in at the last minute to save 12 Warner Bros. Discovery channels from disappearing across Africa! People were really worried because these popular channels, like Cartoon Network and TNT, were about to vanish. Canal+ boss, Maxime Saada, flew to New York and made a clever deal. He promised to include millions more homes and a new super-app, making Warner Bros. Discovery accept a much lower price increase. This amazing move kept favorite shows on screen for countless African viewers, just in time!
How did Canal+ save 12 Warner Bros. Discovery channels from disappearing in Africa?
Canal+ chairman Maxime Saada intervened by repackaging negotiations to include multi-country renewals and the upcoming “Canal+ Max” super-app, covering 2.8 million francophone homes. This move leveraged scale, leading Warner Bros. Discovery to accept a lower price increase and grant exclusive SVOD windows, securing the channels for millions of African viewers.
Section 1 – The Ticking Clock That Stopped Africa’s Screens
A thin red strap haunted DStv’s on-screen guide for twenty-one December nights: “This channel may disappear after 31 December.” The warning, slapped across a dozen heavy-hitter brands, turned dinner-table chit-chat into continent-wide anxiety. Parents in Lagos tweeted #KeepMyCartoonNetwork, Nairobi estate chats argued whether Compact still made sense, and Kampala pubs swapped TNT Africa’s late-night blockbusters for dodgy flash-drive files. Between 10 and 20 December MultiChoice’s call-centres logged 340 % more cancellations than the same window last year – the worst ten-day bleed since the 2019 Rugby World Cup rights walk-off.
Parisian bosses at Canal+ watched the same deadline with clenched teeth. Barely three months after sealing a 45 % stake in MultiChoice they realised a quarter of English-language prime-time inventory was about to vanish – taking with it the glue that keeps high-end subscribers from sliding to Netflix-only diets. Regulatory handcuffs prevented the French group from firing or hiring anyone until January 2026, leaving them financial exposure but zero steering power – exactly the gap Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to exploit.
What looked like a routine carriage quarrel quickly morphed into a continent-sized poker game: 13 million sub-Saharan homes, a soft-launched HBO Max app, shrinking local currencies and a studio determined to squeeze every cent out of its content ledger before the clock struck midnight.
Section 2 – How a Boxing-Day Flight Flipped the Negotiation
Studio negotiators originally asked for a 38 % price jump in hard dollars plus half of every targeted advert MultiChoice planned to splice into the linear feed. MultiChoice refused, pointing out that the naira, rand and shilling had shed eighteen cents to the greenback since 2022 and that HBO Max was already hoovering up family audiences. Warner Bros. Discovery countered that without fresh cash it could no longer bankroll local commissions such as Khanyi Mbau’s Reality Check or the Swahili dubbing warehouse that feeds Cartoonito.
Talks flat-lined until Canal+ chairman Maxime Saada boarded a 26 December jet to New York, landing at Hudson Yards with hours to spare before the switch-off. Rather than haggle over DStv alone, he repackaged the discussion into a multi-country renewal stretching from Abidjan to Antananarivo, folding in 2.8 million francophone homes and the upcoming “Canal+ Max” super-app that will swallow both DStv Stream and MyCanal next year. Scale won: Warner accepted a 17 % headline bump – half its opening demand – plus exclusive SVOD windows inside Canal+ Max and first-dibs co-production rights on any African factual slate above USD 250 k an hour.
The compromise shows how 2025 carriage battles hinge less on per-sub pennies and more on data pipes, addressable ads and who pockets the logged-in email.
Section 3 – Who Really Benefits: Viewers, Advertisers and Regulators
Discovery Channel alone supplies 9.4 % of all DStv Premium viewing minutes; CNN International is still the only round-the-clock news feed broadcast in true HD from Randburg; Cartoon Network beats Cocomelon three-to-one among Kenyan kids 4-14; TNT Africa toppled SuperSport Blitz during the August 2025 day-and-date run of Wonder Woman 1984. Keeping this portfolio intact preserves the genre spread that sets DStv apart from sports-heavy StarTimes or the algorithmic swirl of Netflix.
Ad dollars follow eyeballs. From 1 April, Warner’s Sandton sales house takes 100 % of inventory, replacing the old 60/60 split. A viewer who finishes Shark Week on Sunday can now be chased into Monday’s Catch-Up banner and Tuesday’s HBO Max session, lifting automotive click-through by more than a fifth. Toyota has already shifted ZAR 48 m out of SABC1 primetime into Discovery’s 8 p.m. engine slot – fresh pain for free-to-air incumbents already bleeding to YouTube.
Yet hurdles remain. Kenya’s Communications Authority must bless the HBO Max bundling clause, which could be branded an illegal “tying” arrangement. Nigeria’s NBC is probing whether the 90-day 4K blackout on Discovery titles unfairly throttles local streamers such as IrokoTV. Approval is likely, but regulators may demand consumer opt-outs, creating a patchwork where Lagos viewers watch Euphoria in ultra-HD on Showmax while Accla cousins are stuck in HD on HBO Max.
Section 4 – What Happens Next: Dates, Tech Upgrades and Local Jobs
Key milestones are already inked in industry diaries:
– 15 January 2026 – Nairobi public hearings on operator-billing exclusivity
– 1 March – Canal+ Max beta lands in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire
– 30 June – ICASA audits whether MultiChoice hits South Africa’s 30 % local-spend quota
– 1 October – the 4K embargo can be reviewed if forex chaos cools
– 31 December 2027 – first break-clause window opens, needing twelve months’ notice
Behind the scenes, satellite feeds will still ride Intelsat 36, but Warner can now back-haul encrypted IP into Randburg as insurance against fibre cuts. Canal+ gains the right to demand HEVC encoding, a tweak that halves bandwidth and frees room for 4K sports teasers – expect HEVC chips inside every 2026 decoder, finally retiring MPEG-2 after three decades.
People matter too. A side-letter commits the giants to co-finance 45 hours of new African factual TV yearly for three years, at least half led by women. Titles green-lit include Zambezi Shark Trackers and She Builds, She Rules, a look at female architects transforming Accra and Kigali. The USD 7.2 m annual pot is petty cash globally, yet enough to nudge MultiChoice past the 30 % local quota without slashing sports rights.
From call-centre agents in Mauritius to dish installers in Windhoek, an ecosystem exhaled in relief when the channels stayed put. Few viewers will ever glimpse the currency hedges, French-language leverage and metadata engines that kept their favourite logos on air – but every invoice, pop-up ad and 4K upgrade will quietly reflect the price of that last-minute Christmas miracle.
[{“question”: “
How did Canal+ save 12 Warner Bros. Discovery channels from disappearing in Africa?
\nCanal+ chairman Maxime Saada intervened by repackaging negotiations to include multi-country renewals and the upcoming \”Canal+ Max\” super-app, covering 2.8 million francophone homes. This move leveraged scale, leading Warner Bros. Discovery to accept a lower price increase and grant exclusive SVOD windows, securing the channels for millions of African viewers.\n\n”,”answer”: “Canal+ chairman Maxime Saada intervened by repackaging negotiations to include multi-country renewals and the upcoming \”Canal+ Max\” super-app, covering 2.8 million francophone homes. This move leveraged scale, leading Warner Bros. Discovery to accept a lower price increase and grant exclusive SVOD windows, securing the channels for millions of African viewers.”},{“question”: “
What was the initial warning sign for viewers in Africa?
\nBeginning in December, a warning message, \”This channel may disappear after 31 December,\” appeared on DStv’s on-screen guide for a dozen popular channels. This created widespread anxiety among viewers across the continent, leading to a significant increase in cancellation inquiries for MultiChoice.\n\n”,”answer”: “Beginning in December, a warning message, \”This channel may disappear after 31 December,\” appeared on DStv’s on-screen guide for a dozen popular channels. This created widespread anxiety among viewers across the continent, leading to a significant increase in cancellation inquiries for MultiChoice.”},{“question”: “
What were the initial demands from Warner Bros. Discovery and why did MultiChoice refuse?
\nWarner Bros. Discovery initially demanded a 38% price increase in hard currency, plus half of all targeted advertising revenue. MultiChoice refused, citing the significant depreciation of local currencies (naira, rand, shilling) against the US dollar since 2022 and the increasing popularity of the HBO Max app, which was already attracting family audiences.\n\n”,”answer”: “Warner Bros. Discovery initially demanded a 38% price increase in hard currency, plus half of all targeted advertising revenue. MultiChoice refused, citing the significant depreciation of local currencies (naira, rand, shilling) against the US dollar since 2022 and the increasing popularity of the HBO Max app, which was already attracting family audiences.”},{“question”: “
How did Canal+’s intervention change the negotiation terms?
\nCanal+ chairman Maxime Saada, during a Boxing Day flight to New York, broadened the negotiation beyond just DStv. He proposed a multi-country renewal that included 2.8 million francophone homes and integrated the upcoming \”Canal+ Max\” super-app. This increased scale allowed Warner Bros. Discovery to accept a significantly lower headline price bump of 17% (half of their original demand) and granted Canal+ exclusive SVOD windows within Canal+ Max and first-dibs co-production rights for African factual content.\n\n”,”answer”: “Canal+ chairman Maxime Saada, during a Boxing Day flight to New York, broadened the negotiation beyond just DStv. He proposed a multi-country renewal that included 2.8 million francophone homes and integrated the upcoming \”Canal+ Max\” super-app. This increased scale allowed Warner Bros. Discovery to accept a significantly lower headline price bump of 17% (half of their original demand) and granted Canal+ exclusive SVOD windows within Canal+ Max and first-dibs co-production rights for African factual content.”},{“question”: “
What benefits do African viewers gain from this deal?
\nAfrican viewers retain access to a diverse portfolio of popular channels like Cartoon Network, TNT Africa, Discovery Channel, and CNN International, which are crucial for genre spread and varied content. The deal also includes commitments for local content co-production, such as \”Zambezi Shark Trackers\” and \”She Builds, She Rules,\” ensuring more African stories reach screens and supporting local talent and jobs.\n\n”,”answer”: “African viewers retain access to a diverse portfolio of popular channels like Cartoon Network, TNT Africa, Discovery Channel, and CNN International, which are crucial for genre spread and varied content. The deal also includes commitments for local content co-production, such as \”Zambezi Shark Trackers\” and \”She Builds, She Rules,\” ensuring more African stories reach screens and supporting local talent and jobs.”},{“question”: “
What are some key upcoming milestones and technological upgrades related to this agreement?
\nKey milestones include public hearings on operator-billing exclusivity in Nairobi by January 15, 2026, the beta launch of Canal+ Max in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire by March 1, and an audit of MultiChoice’s local-spend quota by June 30. Technologically, Canal+ gains the right to demand HEVC encoding, which halves bandwidth and frees up space for 4K content, with HEVC chips expected in decoders by 2026. Warner can also now back-haul encrypted IP into Randburg as insurance against fibre cuts.\n\n”,”answer”: “Key milestones include public hearings on operator-billing exclusivity in Nairobi by January 15, 2026, the beta launch of Canal+ Max in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire by March 1, and an audit of MultiChoice’s local-spend quota by June 30. Technologically, Canal+ gains the right to demand HEVC encoding, which halves bandwidth and frees up space for 4K content, with HEVC chips expected in decoders by 2026. Warner can also now back-haul encrypted IP into Randburg as insurance against fibre cuts.”}]
