Canal+ legacy Africa, StudioCanal growth offset Europe and MultiChoice pressures

By Leo Marchandon

July 28 (Reuters) - French pay-TV and media group Canal+ reported a slight rise in its half-year revenue on Tuesday, as growth in its legacy businesses balanced a narrowing decline at MultiChoice, the African broadcaster it acquired last year.

Canal+, which took full control of MultiChoice in September 2025, is seeking to revive growth at the African pay-TV group after years of subscriber losses, while extracting cost savings from the acquisition and investing in cheaper equipment, sales staff and distribution.

Revenue rose 0.6% on a combined basis to €4.29 billion ($4.88 billion) in the six months through June, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and exceptional items grew 19.1% from a year ago to €433 million.

The London-listed shares were up 8% at 0730 GMT, as Canal+ also confirmed its full-year guidance for flat revenue and adjusted EBIT of €735 million.

Excluding MultiChoice, the group's revenue grew 1.8%, or 1.4% at constant scope and currency, helped by double-digit percentage growth in the legacy African and Asian businesses and a 9.9% rise at content creation unit StudioCanal.

In Europe, revenue fell 1.2% to €2.26 billion, reflecting the closure of its "money-losing" French free-to-air channel C8 and Hungarian satellite TV business.

MultiChoice revenue fell 2.9% to €1.19 billion, slowing from a 6.2% drop in the first quarter, as the African operator implemented a turnaround plan, including financing equipment subsidies and expanding its network of shops. It aims to make its offerings more accessible to expand its addressable market on the continent.

"We're reducing the decline," Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada told Reuters. "Eventually we'll stabilise and then eventually we'll grow."

Canal+ said subscriber acquisitions at MultiChoice rose 40% from a year earlier, with June being its strongest month for new added customers in South Africa in a decade.

The group also said it had captured €122 million of synergies from the MultiChoice acquisition by the end of June, including the closure of its loss-making streaming service Showmax.

($1 = €0.8800)

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)