Written by: Roshan Dwivedi
ShowMax, South Africa’s answer to Netflix, is coming to Mzansi as a new subscription video on demand service from Naspers.
The launch of ShowMax will be officially announced on 19 August at a media launch in Johannesburg, with the subscription service set to roll out commercially soon afterwards in the country.
It will be offering subscribers hit shows ranging from cult library series like True Blood to drama series like Ray Donovan and Vikings and comedies like The Big Bang Theory.
Although ShowMax will be competing directly with its own satellite pay-TV offering MultiChoice, which runs DStv, it is actually being established to fend off the looming competition from the global internet subscription TV service Netflix.
“A lot of the prime content that will be on ShowMax people can already see on DStv but it will be a new way for customers to watch. Also the economic model is different – the service is more about enabling people to really go for binge-watching and things a SVOD player are better at than traditional pay-TV operators,” said the source.
ShowMax will also be new competition in the growing local VOD field where the Times Media Group runs VIDI, MTN has its FrontRow service which just lowered some of its prices, MultiChoice’s DStv BoxOffice and Altron’s flopped Altech Node decoder which it is now getting rid of.
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