Just days after Amazon Prime Video announced that it was pressing pause on its original content production in Africa, leading local streaming service Showmax is gearing up for a February relaunch boosted by NBCUniversal’s Peacock technology and bolstered by an ambitious content offering that will see the streamer unveiling 21 new African originals next month alone.
Showmax executives say the reboot puts the new-look platform in a pole position to capture an even bigger slice of the burgeoning African SVOD market.
“We are doubling down on Africa,” says CEO Marc Jury. “We’ve been here for 38 years and intend to be here for a long time. And we feel we’ve got all the best local knowledge in terms of understanding what content [is in demand] and how our customers want to consume it.”
Launched in 2015 by pan-African entertainment giant MultiChoice, which also owns leading pay-TV operator DStv, Showmax has spent the past decade jockeying with deep-pocketed global rivals attempting to make inroads into the African streaming market. Though estimates of each company’s reach vary widely, Showmax is generally considered neck-and-neck, with Netflix as the continent’s leading platform.
Since day one, Showmax has leaned on its local know-how and production capacity as an advantage over its global competitors. It offers a wide range of African content across the MultiChoice bouquet of pay-TV channels and its slate of Showmax originals.
This year, the streamer is ramping up its investment in original content, with more than 1,300 hours of Showmax Original programming expected to launch on the service in 2024, including the anticipated 10-part crime series “Catch Me A Killer,” starring “Game of Thrones'” Charlotte Hope.
The news of the company’s sudden about-face stunned the African filmmaking community, and Jury confessed that he was “surprised” by Amazon’s announcement. “To make inroads in Africa, you have to be here, you have to be relevant for the local markets,” he says. “We’ve had a long period to learn and understand customers, given the rollout of the pay-TV business across the continent, and understanding what it means.
“Unlike Netflix and others, we’re an African business primarily focused on Africa,” he adds. “It’s not just another global market that everyone’s trying to tap into.”
Showmax operates in 44 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and produces originals in its three core markets: South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
Nomsa Philiso, MultiChoice’s CEO of general entertainment, says the streamer will launch its first originals in Ethiopia and Tanzania later this year.
That local strategy has struck a chord with African audiences: in 2022, for example, seven of the platform’s ten most-streamed titles in South Africa, eight of the top 10 in Kenya and Nigeria, and nine of the top 10 in Ghana were all African-produced.
“We’ve invested in people, and we’ve invested in the different industries,” Philiso tells Variety. “We produce about 6,000 hours annually throughout the continent [through Showmax and MultiChoice’s various pay-TV channels]. So we position ourselves where we are needed and where we think we have impact.”
