MultiChoice pivots to Showmax 2.0
MultiChoice will shut down its Showmax Pro offering in favour of a new strategy in which the pay-TV operator now has English Premier League football as a standalone streaming option for customers.
The group has been doubling down on its online streaming efforts, signing many deals in the past two years in a bid to set up Africa’s largest pay-TV operator as the biggest gatekeeper to paying audiences who stream content. MultiChoice aims to make $1bn (R18.67bn) from streaming subscriptions in the next five years.
On Monday, the group said a new, updated version of Showmax, underpinned by technology from US giant NBC Universal, will be rolled out from January 23 for new customers, while existing customers will be migrated from February. The new platform will be available in 44 countries by February 12.
In addition, the group showed off a refreshed brand, expanded content line-up and pricing at a launch event in Johannesburg.
Central to the new offering is a standalone Premier League plan for mobile, with all 380 games offered live on Showmax Premier League, which the group said is a “world first” for such an offering. Customers will pay R69 a month for this plan.
MultiChoice launched Showmax Pro in mid-2020 as an extension of Showmax, the main differentiator being live sport, music and news channels.
“Over time, Showmax Pro will be discontinued,” Marc Jury, CEO of MultiChoice SA and current head of Showmax, told Business Day, adding that customers have been told of the change. Many of these customers have chosen to migrate to the Premier League offering.
“When we look at the viewing stats, in terms of what [people] want to watch, [almost] all of them want to watch the English Premier League. And that’s what they have been watching, largely, on Showmax Pro. At that particular price point, relative to what they [the customers] were paying previously, we haven’t had any pushback.”
Nevertheless, Showmax COO Joe Heshu said: “The capability for live channels in the new platform is there. Will we have live channels in future? That’ sa content decision that we’ll make as the product develops.”
Essentially, MultiChoice customers looking to live-stream linear television channels have DStv Stream, while those looking for on-demand video have Showmax. Live content on Showmax will, for now, be limited to football matches and related content.
This is all part of a new set of packages that will be available to customers, including Showmax Entertainment at R89 and Showmax Entertainment Mobile at R39.
In a bold move, Showmax dropped the price of its main “Entertainment” from R99, as it aims to draw in more subscribers. Prices had been expected to rise in line with inflation, competitor rates, a bigger content library, local content production and the group’s investment in the platform, among many factors. Showmax’s standard package has been the same since the platform was launched in 2015.
As part of an effort to scale Showmax further, management said MultiChoice’s ability to share costs across the group allows for flexibility on pricing.
To compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the group has invested substantially in Showmax. It invested R500m more than in the previous financial year, due mainly to dual platform costs that it expects will normalise once customers have migrated.
A new Showmax group was created that is 70% owned by MultiChoice and 30% by Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, and powered by its Peacock technology.