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Showmax is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top
streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
service that launched in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
on 19 August 2015. Its majority owner is
MultiChoice MultiChoice is a South Africa, South African company that operates DStv, a major satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company also operates GOtv Africa, GOtv, a minor satellite TV service operating in 9 countries, and Showmax, ...
, which owns 70% of the Showmax group, while American conglomerate
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
owns 30% in all territories except Nigeria, where NBCUniversal holds an indirect 23.7% stake in the local subsidiary. In 2023, Showmax announced a partnership with NBCUniversal and Sky. The new Showmax launched in February 2024, with a brand-new app and streaming platform, as well as an unprecedented content slate. Showmax uses a localisation strategy to take on established video on demand competitors with a focus on local content and partnerships with mobile telcos. It has a customer base of 2.1 million subscribers Africa-wide first place in the continent's market overtaking
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
's 1.8 million by November 2023. The Showmax catalogue consists of series, movies and documentaries from Hollywood, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the UK, among others, and content in English,
Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
,
isiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...
,
Kiswahili Swahili, also known as as it is referred to in the Swahili language, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral i ...
, Sepedi,
SeTswana Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language indigenous to Southern Africa and spoken by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalaga ...
,
Sesotho Sotho (), also known as ''Sesotho'' (), Southern Sotho, or ''Sesotho sa Borwa'' is a Southern Bantu languages, Southern Bantu language spoken in Lesotho as its national language and South Africa where it is an official language. Like all Ba ...
and
isiXhosa Xhosa ( , ), formerly spelled ''Xosa'' and also known by its local name ''isiXhosa'', is a Bantu language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language ...
, and other African languages. Showmax's engineering team was originally based in the Czech Republic, but has since merged with Sky UK’s Global Streaming team.


History

In December 2015, Showmax expanded its reach to audiences in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
,
Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
and
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, with lineups tailored for African expats. In May 2016, Showmax expanded to 36 countries in Africa, taking the total number of countries in which Showmax is available to 65. In July of the same year, Showmax passed the 10 million views milestone. In August 2016, the Showmax logo was changed from framed black and white logotype using
camel case The writing format camel case (sometimes stylized autological, autologically as camelCase or CamelCase, also known as camel caps or more formally as medial capitals) is the practice of writing phrases without spaces or punctuation and with cap ...
to an all lower-case logotype with added dark magenta and teal stripes. In October of the same year, Showmax launched Showmax Select and Showmax Premium in Kenya. In January 2017, Showmax partnered with SEACOM to put caching servers in Nairobi, Kenya. A month later, Showmax launched in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. In December 2017, Saturday Night Live Polska launched as their original series. On 31 January 2019, Showmax was closed in Poland due to slow growth. On 7 July 2020, Showmax Pro was launched. The new service bundled the existing Showmax entertainment service with music channels, news, and live sport streaming from SuperSport. In March 2023,
MultiChoice MultiChoice is a South Africa, South African company that operates DStv, a major satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company also operates GOtv Africa, GOtv, a minor satellite TV service operating in 9 countries, and Showmax, ...
and Comcast's
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
and Sky announced that they would partner with Showmax in Africa, with NBCU owning 30% of the new entity and MultiChoice owning 70%. The joint venture now harnesses
Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...
technology and includes content from Peacock and
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
, as well as African content, such as Showmax Originals and local content from MultiChoice's proprietary channels, including Mzansi Magic, Africa Magic and Maisha Magic at re-launch. On 15 November 2023, Showmax announced plans for a relaunch with a brand-new app in February 2024, after the announcement of the partnership between Showmax and international media heavyweight Comcast's NBCUniversal and Sky in March. With the relaunch, Showmax introduced a new sports plan called Showmax Premier League, giving subscribers live-stream access to all Premier League games, courtesy of SuperSport, on mobile devices. Other plans on offer post-launch include Showmax Entertainment, available on up to five devices with two concurrent streams, providing unlimited access to all the local and international series, movies, documentaries and kids' shows in the Showmax catalogue; and Showmax Entertainment Mobile, which includes access to the same entertainment catalogue, but only on one mobile device, with one stream. With the announcement of the relaunch, Showmax also unveiled a brand-new logo, and explained how migration onto the global, robust Peacock streaming platform allows the service to scale fast. The content slate that hit Showmax after the launch in February 2024 includes a record number of African Originals, as well as a massive line-up of international hit series and blockbuster movies.


Features


Downloads

Showmax's download feature allows users to download up to 25 shows or movies at a time and watch them offline on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. There are four different quality settings to reduce the amount of data required to download.


Bandwidth capping

In January 2024, Showmax released their new bandwidth caps, which include a low cap that uses only 60 MB per hour on mobile, with three other bandwidth caps that use up to 240 MB/hour, 330 MB/hour and 1.6 GB/hour respectively on mobile, allowing subscribers to manage their data usage while streaming.


Multiple profiles

In August 2016, Showmax added a multiple profile feature including the ability to set up child-friendly profiles with three age settings.


Mobile plan

In October 2019, Showmax introduced a mobile-only plan. According to Showmax, "Smartphones and tablets are, for many in Africa, the primary, if not only, window to the internet, and up until now none of the most popular SVoD services has designed a product specifically for mobile usage."


Showmax Pro

In July 2020, Showmax launched live sport streaming service Showmax Pro and began roll out across 40 countries in Africa. In June 2019, Showmax began testing sport live-streaming, and by 2022, the Showmax Pro service was available across 50 African countries in sub-Saharan Africa. On 1 October 2023, Showmax announced that Showmax Pro would no longer be available for subscription ahead of the relaunch of Showmax. By 30 November 2023, Showmax Pro was phased out to make way for Showmax's new sports-streaming product, Showmax Premier League, which gives subscribers access to all 380 games of the Premier League, all available to live stream on their mobile devices.


Showmax Originals

Showmax Originals include: '' Tali's Wedding Diary'', '' The Girl from St. Agnes'', '' Trippin with Skhumba'', '' Somizi & Mohale: The Union'', '' Rage'', '' The Real Housewives of Durban'', '' Crime and Justice'', ''
Dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
'', '' Devilsdorp'', '' Blood Psalms'', '' Diiche'', ''
Flawsome ''Flawsome'' is a 2022 Nigerian Showmax Original drama series created and directed by Tola Odunsi. It stars Enado Odigie, Bisola Aiyeola, Sharon Ooja, Gabriel Afolayan, Iretiola Doyle, Baaj Adebule, Shine Rosman, and Shawn Fuqua. Plot ''Fla ...
'', '' This Body Works For Me'', '' Wura'', '' The Real Housewives of Nairobi'', '' Adulting'', ''
Faithless Faithless are an English dance music Band (rock and pop), band that formed in 1995, with its core original members being Rollo Armstrong, Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz. During the band's initial period of success, Sister Bliss and Maxi Ja ...
'', '' Boetie Boer: Inside The Mind Of A Killer'', '' The Real Housewives of Lagos'', '' Bae Beyond Borders'', '' Cheta M'', '' Sadau Sisters'', '' Red Ink'', '' Youngins'', '' Wyfie'', '' Catch Me a Killer'', '' Widows Unveiled'', '' 4Play'', '' Big Girl Small World'', '' The Hot Seat, The Mommy Club NBO and'' '' Tracking Thabo Bester''.


References


External links

*
Engineering Blog

Showmax Stories (blog)
{{VOD services Subscription video on demand services Internet properties established in 2015 2015 establishments in South Africa