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Showmax Improves Entertainment Experience, Revolutionises Streaming For Africa With Relaunch

By Eniola Daniel

15 January 2024   |   7:52 pm

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In its drive to improve entertainment lovers experience, revolutionise and change the game for streaming service in Africa, Showmax has relaunched and unveiled new logo.

In its drive to improve entertainment lovers experience, revolutionise and change the game for streaming service in Africa, Showmax has relaunched and unveiled new logo.

The new Showmax is featuring a refreshed brand and a massive 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.

In addition, there are two more Showmax plans available to customers: Showmax Entertainment on mobile as well as the Showmax Entertainment at launch.

Executive Head of content and channels for west Africa, Dr. Busola Tejumola, this is a new Showmax, new platform, new technology and new content; on the content side, we have 21 new titles in this month a lone across Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya. We have five titles from Nigeria; Flawsome season 2 is coming back, our first Showmax original epic telenovela, the Counselor,

Rahama Sadau, Chata’m are coming back too. These local titles will excite our viewers.

“We have a rebranded, sleek, beautiful Showmax and the Algorithm is best in class.

At the launch, GM of Showmax Nigeria, Opeoluwa Filani, said: “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,”

“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.”

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 world-class 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.
More recently, Peacock successfully streamed two exclusive NFL games; the first game on 23 December drew 5.7 million concurrent devices, and the second on 13 January was the first-ever NFL Wild Card playoff game to be available exclusively on streaming. In 2023, Comcast won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for its sports viewing experiences across Peacock, Sky and Xfinity.

Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Direct-to-Consumer & International, NBCUniversal, Patrick Miceli, said: “Peacock’s best-in-class technology platform will deliver a world-class streaming experience to Showmax audiences.”

“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 a thrilling 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, which include five Nigerian Originals, 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.

John Ugbe who is the CEO of West Africa, MultiChoice, said: “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.”

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 February 12, 2024 the new Showmax will be live in all markets.