Across conversations in my travels between Marrakech and Jeddah — and I am still en route to Jeddah after multiple flight delays and an unplanned hotel stay that will have me landing much later than my original itinerary — the Netflix–Warner announcement is a dominant topic. For those who may have missed it, Netflix has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Warner Bros., HBO, and the Max streaming service in a deal valued at $72 billion. Should the transaction pass regulatory scrutiny, it would place Netflix in control of one of Hollywood’s major studios — a century-old property with a deep global catalogue, including the DC universe, creating one of the most concentrated ownership structures the sector has seen in decades.
Paramount and Skydance completed their own merger this year, with the Ellison family financing the transition. That deal gave the new company control over Paramount Pictures, CBS, Paramount+, the Paramount library, and Skydance’s production and VFX pipelines.
With Netflix now preparing to take over Warner Bros., two of Hollywood’s foundational studios — Warner Bros. and Paramount — have moved into the hands of companies with roots in the 21st-century tech era. Disney and Sony are the only long-standing independents that remain intact at the global level. Amazon sits nearby with MGM, while Apple, another tech-native company with the capacity for large acquisitions, has not yet made a move on that scale in the media sector.
This rapidly shifting global landscape is the topic I have received the most inquiries about this week from both subscribers and non-subscribers, as African and diaspora professionals take stock of the field they are entering or already working within.
Much of the reaction asks whether Africa should expect direct advantages from this Netflix-Warner Bros. merger, or whether it introduces new constraints. The immediate answer is that Africa is outside these transactions. The effects on the continent will be limited in the near term. Netflix gains Warner Bros. to strengthen its global retention strategy, not to expand its production footprint in what are considered emerging markets — Africa as a whole being one of them. Most of its work on the continent continues to be centered in South Africa, and its presence in francophone Africa is now being routed through Canal+ rather than new local offices. Nothing in the Netflix–Warner agreement points to an upcoming shift toward large-scale commissioning in any African territories.
Africa enters this new global arena from a different angle. The Canal+ takeover of MultiChoice, at a valuation of roughly $2–3 billion, is far smaller in financial terms than the transactions in the United States but far more consequential for daily life on the continent. It’s also sobering to realize that the largest media operator in Africa has a market valuation that’s a fraction of what even the weakest US studios command, and what that contrast says about how global capital assigns value to African media infrastructure, and the state of the infrastructure itself.
The Canal+ and MultiChoice combination now controls the strongest commissioning and distribution infrastructure on the continent. This includes DStv, GOtv, and Showmax, as well as the full Canal+ Afrique network. And Canal+ expanded its existing Netflix partnership into francophone Africa for the first time this year, introducing Netflix bundles across more than twenty French-speaking markets.
While the American deals rearrange ownership of global IP, the Canal+ structure shapes the same conditions within Africa.
The diaspora will feel the effects earlier than those working on the continent, simply because they are inside the US and European markets, where consolidation is happening. There are now fewer large studios to pitch to, and far more power concentrated within them. This will shape who gets hired, how projects are weighed, and how long certain kinds of work take to move forward. African and Afro-descendant writers, directors, and actors will compete in a system with fewer major buyers at the top and more pressure on titles that can travel globally or connect to recognizable IP.
On the continent, the big picture story will continue to be the rise of Canal+ and MultiChoice as the primary gatekeepers for African content. Showmax is still commissioning. Canal+ maintains a wide francophone footprint and produces work at a steady rhythm. The merged entity also controls the infrastructure needed to grow or export African stories at scale, now with a defined StudioCanal export route for projects that meet its technical and commercial thresholds. The US mergers do not change that structure today, though they do tighten the number of global suppliers that Canal+ and MultiChoice must negotiate with for rights and windowing.
The next five to ten years will tell us how these announced major shifts will work in practice. Netflix will organize Warner Bros., HBO, and DC according to its own production logic. Paramount Skydance will attempt to rebuild Paramount’s relevance. Disney and Sony will need to show how they intend to compete against new, larger rivals. Canal+ and MultiChoice will continue to set the rhythm for pay-TV and streaming across Africa, while also outlining new ambitions to distribute African works internationally, via StudioCanal and other arms of the Vivendi group. Canal+ has committed to publishing detailed integration and synergy plans for its African operations in the first quarter of 2026, which could provide a clearer understanding of how these global behemoths intend to engage with African markets.
Ultimately, for African and diaspora professionals, the global market is consolidating at the top, and Africa’s distribution landscape is consolidating at the regional level. The companies that control large libraries and distribution systems will continue to shape the industry’s direction. Nothing has fundamentally changed from your perspective, but this consolidation wave narrows the number of companies that can meaningfully acquire, license, finance, or distribute work at the global level, shrinking the set of decision-makers and routes that remain available.
Over the long term, the ripple effects could include a smaller number of companies willing to buy independent projects, longer timelines for decisions as larger corporations centralize their approval processes, a stronger focus on projects tied to familiar IP (brands, well-known characters, even digital media creatives with large audiences), and increased dependence on Canal+, MultiChoice, and a few national broadcasters for most commissions across African markets. It could also produce tougher negotiations around rights, fewer routes for African films and series to reach international markets, and higher reliance on public agencies, foundations, and regional institutions to finance new work when commercial buyers reduce the number of projects they support.
For more exclusive African screen sector analysis and insights, subscribe now (7-day free trial and localized pricing available in select markets): https://akoroko.com/localpricing/