Fox Corp is placing a massive bet on the future of cord-cutting, announcing a cash-and-stock deal to purchase streaming pioneer Roku for approximately $22 billion. The blockbuster acquisition aims to combine Fox’s premier live sports and news programming with Roku’s hardware and software footprint, accelerating Fox’s transition into the digital-first era. Read: Meta rolls out…
Fox Corp is buying Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about US$22-billion in a bet that pairing its sports and news programming with a top TV streaming platform will strengthen its position as audiences shift online. The deal, announced on Monday, gives the cable TV-reliant Fox direct access to Roku’s large installed base of…
Robert Koen, Amazon’s MD for sub-Saharan Africa South Africans who subscribe to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service will be automatically moved onto the company’s new and cheaper Amazon Prime membership, Amazon has confirmed. Prime Video has until now been sold locally as a standalone service at R79/month. The newly launched Prime bundle, which folds in…
South African audiences and global viewers have gained access to a new free-to-view streaming platform, Afree TV, dedicated to showcasing African entertainment at scale. Powered by signal distributor Sentech’s Freevision Play over-the-top (OTT) architecture, the service aims to unify regional broadcasters and content owners into a single continental collaboration designed to take African stories to…
Subscriptions to AI tools are taking a growing share of consumer wallets, according to a new report by Discovery and Visa. Speaking at the launch of the Discovery SpendTrend 2026 report in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Lineshree Moodley, country head for Visa South Africa, said AI subscriptions nearly doubled in 2025, with 43% of Discovery Bank…
SportyTV, an African-focused streaming platform, said on Monday that it has acquired pay-television rights to show all 104 matches of the 2026 Fifa World Cup in South Africa. The deal, which SportyTV said was struck directly with Fifa, marks a significant escalation for the platform in a market where MultiChoice Group’s SuperSport has held the…
In a definitive conclusion to a high-stakes corporate battle, Paramount Skydance has emerged as the winner in the race to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). The path was cleared on Thursday when streaming titan Netflix officially declined to match Paramount’s superior bid, ending months of intense speculation and hostile manoeuvring within the entertainment industry. Read:…
MultiChoice Group and its cybersecurity subsidiary Irdeto have led a series of enforcement actions against illegal streaming operations in the Western Cape, resulting in arrests, device seizures and multiple court convictions under South Africa’s Cybercrimes Act. Two raids were conducted in Cape Town in February and March 2026, working in partnership with the police’s Provincial…
MultiChoice Group said it will shut down its streaming platform Showmax after 11 years of operation as the company reviews its digital strategy. The decision was communicated to subscribers in an email on Thursday. The company said the move follows a review by the Showmax board. “Following a comprehensive review, the Showmax Board has taken…
Watch time on the eVOD platform increased by 56%. (Image: Supplied) Local video-on-demand platform eVOD reached 2.2 million registered users in the third quarter of 2025, says the company. eVOD is owned by eMedia, the parent company of e.tv and Openview. In a statement, eVOD reveals it recorded a 22% year-on-year increase in registrations, which…
