Kenya’s pay-tv market is in freefall, with active subscriptions plunging 77% to just 1.5 million by June 2025, as rising prices and a surge in illegal streaming sap demand.
MultiChoice, the South African broadcaster behind DStv and GOtv, has been hardest hit. Its Kenyan subscriber base shrank 84% in the past year, from 1.2 million to just 188,824. Analysts attribute the collapse to five price hikes in three years, alongside mounting economic pressures that have made premium TV increasingly unaffordable.
The decline comes as MultiChoice changes hands. Canal+, the French media group, confirmed it now holds 46% of MultiChoice as of 19 September, with an additional 2.2% of shares tendered since.
That gives the London-listed broadcaster effective control of MultiChoice, with further tenders expected to lift its stake even higher.
The $1.6bn (Sh245bn) takeover has already prompted structural changes. Earlier this month, MultiChoice reorganised its South African operations in line with conditions imposed by the country’s Competition Tribunal, which approved the deal in July. Canal+ has since appointed David Mignot as chief executive and Calvo Mawela as chair of Canal+ Africa.
The French company now faces the challenge of reviving a brand battered by dwindling revenues, piracy, and consumer disaffection.
