Canal+ wants to take DStv’s African stories global

Nǐ hǎo,

Victoria from Techpoint here,

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

Canal+ wants to take DStv’s African stories global
Meet the woman keeping startups out of privacy trouble
Morocco moves to make Internet cheaper and faster

Canal+ wants to take DStv’s African stories global

MultiChoice’s new owner, French media giant Canal+, has big plans for the DStv maker, and they involve taking African-made content global. The company wants to start selling South African-produced shows and movies to overseas markets through its global distribution arm, StudioCanal.

Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot told Sunday Times that StudioCanal, which already handles some of Europe’s biggest exports, will now help push African stories beyond the continent. “StudioCanal is everywhere… they are the biggest seller of European content worldwide,” he said. But there’s a catch: only top-tier productions will make the cut.

Two standout examples are Shaka iLembe and Spinners, both made by MultiChoice. Shaka iLembe, a retelling of the life of King Shaka, became a cultural moment when it premiered in 2023, pulling in a record 3.6 million viewers in its first week. The show has since racked up awards, glowing reviews, and even helped create over 16,000 jobs during production.

Spinners, meanwhile, tells the story of a 17-year-old trying to leave gang life behind through the wild sport of car spinning. It’s gritty, local, and packed with the kind of raw energy global audiences are beginning to crave. With StudioCanal’s muscle, both series could reach millions more outside Africa.

Canal+ seems to be spotting an opportunity others have already tapped into. Netflix and Amazon have invested heavily in South African productions — My Octopus Teacher even won an Oscar, while Beauty and the Bester topped Netflix charts in the UK. South Africa is fast becoming one of the most cost-effective places to shoot big-budget shows, with world-class talent to match.

For MultiChoice, this global push doesn’t mean abandoning its roots. The company has doubled down on “hyper-local” content and recently limited Showmax 2.0 to African markets. But if Canal+ can pull this off, DStv’s homegrown hits might soon be playing to audiences far beyond the continent.

Meet the woman keeping startups out of privacy trouble

Motunrayo Adebayo didn’t plan to end up in tech. She started out as a lawyer, but somewhere between working with IT firms and seeing how casually companies treated personal data, she caught the privacy bug. That interest eventually led her to a Master’s in Information Security, and today, she’s the person startups call when they want to stay out of trouble with privacy regulators.

Her job? Helping organisations set up proper privacy programmes so they don’t end up like Meta or other big names fined millions over data mishandling. “Privacy isn’t one-size-fits-all,” she explains. “What applies in healthcare might not apply in finance.” From HR files to front-desk visitor logs, even the smallest detail can cause a privacy breach if not handled properly.

Motunrayo’s work starts from the top with leadership buy-in. Once management understands that privacy is part of daily operations, the culture trickles down. She also helps companies figure out where their data lives, who has access to it, and how secure their vendors are. “You can’t protect what you don’t know exists,” she says.

Still, not everyone gets it right away. She recalls walking into an office where people’s personal information was lying openly on desks. “Management got it, but one senior figure didn’t. It took over an hour to convince him why it was risky,” she says with a laugh. And yes, she’s seen worse like job applicants’ CVs ending up as roadside wrapping paper.

Motunrayo’s advice to startups? Take privacy seriously from day one. It’s not just about avoiding fines; it’s about protecting people. Read all about her insights in Delight’s latest edition of After Hours.

Morocco moves to make Internet cheaper and faster

no internet — Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

Morocco’s telecom watchdog is tightening the rules, and it’s all about getting operators to play nice and share. The regulator is rolling out new measures to enforce infrastructure sharing, a move that could shake up the country’s telecom scene.

The goal is simple: make Internet and mobile services faster, cheaper, and more widely available. Instead of every telecom company building its own towers and fibre networks, they’ll now have to share resources, a change that could dramatically cut costs and speed up coverage expansion.

Morocco has already made big strides in digital infrastructure, but rural and remote areas still lag behind. The regulator believes that a more collaborative approach among telcos will help close this gap and make the country’s ambitious digital transformation plans more achievable.

The idea isn’t new. Countries across Africa are experimenting with similar policies to improve access and affordability. What sets Morocco apart is the timing and scale of its push.

For consumers, this could mean better network quality and lower data prices. For operators, it’s a wake-up call to focus less on competition through infrastructure and more on innovation and customer experience.

What I’m watching

Opportunities

Airtel is hiring Enterprise Key Account Manager. Apply here.
Financial Times is recruiting a West African Correspondent. Apply here.
Moove is hiring a Marketing Manager. Apply here.
Standard Bank is looking for a Data Engineer. Apply here.
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