The streaming competition has just had a new horse enter the race, in the form of the recently relaunched Showmax.
Ten months after MultiChoice, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky announced a joint streaming vision for Africa, the new Showmax is now here, featuring a refreshed brand and content lineup, all delivered on a powerful new streaming platform.
At the heart of the new offering is the world’s first standalone Premier League plan for mobile, with all 380 games offered live on Showmax Premier League for just R69 a month.
In addition, there are two more Showmax plans available to customers in 44 African countries:
Showmax Entertainment on mobile for an unbelievable R39 a month at launch, as well as the Showmax Entertainment plan, where the monthly price falls from R99 to R89 per month.
“There are currently just over 450 million smartphones in the hands of individuals across Africa … and more than 250 million avid football lovers on the continent,” says Marc Jury, CEO of Showmax.
“Showmax Premier League is a game-changing product that gives individuals a ticket to the football they love, wherever they are, on the device they always have with them, at a price that’s impossible not to love.”
“Africa is incredibly important to the Premier League and our clubs; 20% of TV audiences on any given matchday come from Africa,” says Richard Masters, Premier League CEO. “We are delighted with this Showmax initiative, which puts the Premier League in your pocket at a new price point so that millions more can enjoy our fantastic competition."
The company said, core to the success of Showmax’s streaming ambitions in Africa is a new technical platform that is robust and built to scale.
With the launch of Showmax, the Peacock streaming platform will be active in more than 70 countries and is continually enhanced by the combined expertise of thousands of engineers.
The platform has brought millions of viewers popular events such as Super Bowl LVI, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 final, the Olympics and WrestleMania 39.
On 13 January, Peacock's exclusive AFC Wild Card Game became the biggest live-streamed event in US history, reaching 27.6 million viewers and a record 16.3 million concurrent devices.
In 2023, Comcast won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for its sports viewing experiences across Peacock, Sky and Xfinity.
“Peacock’s best-in-class technology platform will deliver a world-class streaming experience to Showmax audiences,” said Patrick Miceli, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Direct-to-Consumer & International, NBCUniversal.
“The Peacock platform was designed from day one to support both live and on-demand content, including the biggest live sporting events, so we look forward to extending that capability and reliability to the new Showmax.”
Alongside the Premier League, the new Showmax also opens the door to an entertainment universe spanning a wide range of stars and stories across multiple genres.
With no fewer than 21 new Showmax Originals launching in February alone, there will be more than 1 300 hours of Showmax Originals produced in the coming year, representing a significant 150% increase in production output compared to the year before.
Complementing this powerful African content slate is an international offering that will give viewers cause for celebration.
As a result of MultiChoice’s partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky, Showmax is guaranteed an ongoing supply of the world’s most popular titles from the media giant’s renowned brands, including Universal Pictures, Focus Features, NBC, Peacock, DreamWorks Animation and Telemundo.
The stellar content lineup includes films like the latest instalment in the hit Fast franchise, Fast X, and Wes Anderson’s comedy-drama Asteroid City; procedural drama series such as NBC’s The Irrational starring Jesse L. Martin; and Peacock original comedy series Killing It, from the creative team behind Brooklyn Nine-Nine, starring Craig Robinson.
Showmax will also continue to draw from the likes of Paramount, including Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Halo S2 in February, and HBO, with new seasons of House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, True Detective, and The White Lotus on the way.
Showmax’s content offering is further boosted by its focus on the African market and strengthened by the vast creative and commercial presence already established by MultiChoice.
“Nobody understands Africa like we do. Showmax is putting the continent first with a powerful streaming service that will revolutionise streaming in Africa in 2024,” says Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO.
With the content and platform providing strong foundations for the new Showmax, ease of access for customers is another key business priority. As the first streaming service in Africa to make mobile downloads possible for offline viewing and the first to launch a mobile-only plan, Showmax has now delivered incredibly competitive new price points, with a growing network of payment options available to customers.
This payment ecosystem is facilitated by Moment, another MultiChoice joint venture partner.
Working with more than 200 payment partners such as banks, mobile money providers, retailers and payment schemes, Moment is building the broadest pan-African payments network.
In addition, DStv customers will continue to have the option of adding Showmax to their DStv bill each month and benefitting from significant discounts. Showmax will be announcing additional partnerships soon that will offer even more value to customers.
The new Showmax app will become available in app stores from 23 January 2024 onward, as part of a staggered migration process across 44 markets.
This is an ongoing process that starts next week and will be completed in February this year.
Existing Showmax customers will begin receiving communication with information on how to access the new app this week and by 12 February 2024 the new Showmax will be live in all markets.
BUSINESS REPORT