Canal+ has partnered with Samsung to pre-install DStv Stream on Smart TVs across 18 African countries. Here’s what changed, what’s coming, and why it matters.
INTRODUCTION
If you have recently bought a new Samsung Smart TV in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, or any of 15 other African markets, your television now comes with DStv Stream already waiting on the home screen.
Canal+, the French media conglomerate that completed its acquisition of MultiChoice in late 2025, has announced an expanded strategic partnership with Samsung Electronics. From 1 June 2026, the DStv Stream app is pre-installed on all new Samsung Smart TVs across 18 African countries covering English and Portuguese-speaking markets served by MultiChoice Group.
For millions of viewers across the continent, this removes a step. No app store search, no manual download, no setup friction, just a direct shortcut from your TV’s home screen to DStv’s full content catalogue. And for Canal+, it marks a significant push to consolidate and expand MultiChoice’s streaming footprint at a moment when the group’s strategy in Africa is shifting rapidly.
Here is the full picture of what this deal means, what changed at Canal+ to make it happen, and where streaming in Africa goes from here.
THE DEAL: WHAT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN ANNOUNCED
Canal+ confirmed that the DStv Stream app will be pre-installed on all new Samsung Smart TVs across 18 African countries from 1 June 2026. The markets include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, among others spanning English and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
This is the first time the DStv Stream app has been pre-installed on Samsung Smart TVs in these markets. The arrangement means the app ships as part of the TV’s default home screen, not available in an app store, but directly accessible from the moment the television is switched on.
The partnership builds on an existing relationship between Canal+ and Samsung that already covers 40 markets across Europe, French-speaking Africa, and Asia. Extending it to English and Portuguese-speaking African markets represents a meaningful geographic expansion of that collaboration.
David Mignot, CEO of MultiChoice Group, described the deal as a milestone in the synergies created by the combination of Canal+ and MultiChoice Group, and added that strengthening content accessibility across the continent is central to the group’s current direction as viewing habits evolve.
WHAT SAMSUNG SMART TV USERS GET
For Samsung Smart TV owners in the 18 covered markets, the practical change is straightforward: DStv Stream is on the home screen by default.
The app gives users access to Canal+’s and MultiChoice’s full content offering through DStv Stream, which now includes:
- Live sports: FIFA World Cup, English Premier League, international rugby
- A library that previously spanned both DStv Stream and Showmax content (see below for why Showmax is relevant here)
- On-demand series, movies, and local content
- MultiChoice’s breadth of channels and live TV programming
The key benefit is simplified access. Viewers who previously needed to navigate Samsung’s app store to find and install DStv Stream or who may not have known the app existed, now encounter it directly at the start of every television session.
THE BACKSTORY: CANAL+, MULTICHOICE, AND A RAPIDLY CHANGING STRATEGY
To understand why this Samsung partnership matters, it helps to understand how dramatically MultiChoice’s landscape has changed in the past twelve months.
Canal+, the French pay-TV giant and subsidiary of Vivendi, completed a full acquisition of MultiChoice in October 2025. The deal, an all-cash transaction that valued MultiChoice at approximately $3.2 billion, gave Canal+ control of DStv, GOtv, SuperSport, M-Net, Irdeto, and KingMakers, creating a combined group serving over 40 million subscribers across more than 70 countries, supported by around 17,000 employees worldwide.
MultiChoice, at the time of acquisition, was under significant financial pressure. It had been losing subscribers to competition from global streaming services, and its own streaming platform, Showmax had posted a trading loss of approximately ZAR 4.9 billion (around $297 million) for the 2025 financial year, an 88% worsening from the prior year.
Canal+, already operating its own successful streaming platform (myCanal) across Francophone African markets, made a decisive call: Showmax was unsustainable. Canal+ shut it down, with content migrated to a dedicated Showmax section within the DStv Stream app. Showmax subscriptions ended on 31 March 2026, and the service officially closed on 30 April 2026.
Rather than running competing streaming stacks, Canal+ has consolidated everything under DStv Stream while pursuing a partnership-led strategy for content expansion, already distributing Netflix in approximately 20 African markets. The Samsung pre-installation deal fits squarely within this framework: instead of building audience through advertising and app store discovery, Canal+ is embedding DStv Stream directly into the device people already own.
CANAL+’S BROADER STRATEGY: PARTNERSHIPS OVER PLATFORM WARS
The Samsung deal is part of a wider pattern that Canal+ has established across its global operations.
In Europe, Canal+ has built a model where a single subscription provides access to multiple entertainment services including bundled streaming access, rather than forcing subscribers to manage separate apps and separate bills. That bundling approach is now being brought to Africa, market by market.
Canal+ CFO Amandine Ferre outlined the direction at the start of 2026: the company is considering deploying its own Canal+ streaming app for MultiChoice customers, incorporating deals with Apple TV and Warner Bros Discovery’s HBO Max. The goal, as Ferre described it, is for all content to be embedded in one app so that users do not need to navigate between multiple services.
Canal+ already distributes Netflix across a number of African markets under a similar partnership logic. The Samsung pre-installation deal extends that same philosophy to device-level access, DStv Stream does not need to be discovered if it is already there when you turn on the TV.
This model reflects a broader rethinking of how streaming reaches viewers on a continent where broadband penetration is growing but uneven, and where the cost of acquiring and retaining streaming subscribers through digital marketing remains high. Embedding access at the device level reduces that acquisition cost significantly.
WHICH 18 COUNTRIES ARE INCLUDED?
Canal+ has confirmed the partnership covers English and Portuguese-speaking African markets served by MultiChoice Group. Confirmed markets include:
- South Africa
- Nigeria
- Kenya
- Zimbabwe
The remaining 14 markets have not been individually named in the official announcement but are described as English and Portuguese-speaking African markets in MultiChoice’s footprint. This covers a broad sweep of sub-Saharan Africa and is consistent with the geographic boundaries of MultiChoice’s existing operations.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR VIEWERS ACROSS AFRICA
For viewers in the 18 covered markets, the immediate practical effect is convenience. DStv Stream is already on the home screen, active Samsung Smart TV users with DStv Stream subscriptions gain frictionless access from their televisions without any additional setup.
For non-subscribers, the pre-installation puts DStv Stream in front of every new Samsung TV owners at the moment they are most likely to think about streaming options, right when the TV is set up for the first time. Canal+ is counting on that visibility to convert new viewers.
For the broader African streaming market, the deal signals the direction that Canal+/MultiChoice is heading: partnerships over platform building, distribution breadth over proprietary ecosystems, and device-level presence over app store competition.
The competitive context matters: Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video are all active in parts of the same market. Canal+ is using its existing infrastructure, content rights, and now device partnerships to hold its position before the next phase of its streaming strategy, potentially including a unified Canal+ super-app, takes shape.
CONCLUSION
The Canal+ and Samsung pre-installation deal is a practical and strategically significant move. On the surface, it is about putting DStv Stream on the home screen of Samsung Smart TVs in 18 African countries. Below the surface, it reflects how Canal+ is repositioning MultiChoice’s streaming presence in a post-Showmax landscape, leaning on partnerships, device-level access, and content bundling rather than competing head-to-head with global streaming platforms on their own terms.
For Samsung Smart TV owners in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and across English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, the change is already live: DStv Stream is there, from 1 June 2026, on every new Samsung Smart TV without any action required.
