Ten months after MultiChoice, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky announced a joint streaming vision for Africa, the new Showmax is scheduled to launch in February featuring a new brand and content lineup delivered on a new streaming platform powered by Peacock.
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. In addition, there are two more Showmax plans available to customers in 44 African countries: Showmax Entertainment on mobile as well as the Showmax Entertainment plan.
“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."
Alongside the Premier League, the new Showmax will also feature no no fewer than 21 new Showmax Originals including 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. 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.
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. 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.