Type of site Video on demand Parent Naspers | Available in English, Polish Website www.showmax.com | |
Area served Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Reunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States Launched 19 August 2015; 19 months ago (2015-08-19) | ||
ShowMax is an online subscription video on demand (SVOD) service which launched in South Africa on 19 August 2015.
Contents
- History
- Downloads
- Bandwidth capping
- Multiple profiles
- Device support
- ShowMax is available in the following countries
- Content
- References
ShowMax is employing a localisation strategy to take on established video on demand competitors with a focus on local content and partnerships with mobile telcos.
In South Africa, ShowMax competes with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and VU.
ShowMax is a subsidiary of Naspers. ShowMax’s engineering team is based in the Czech Republic.
ShowMax offers consumers a free 14-day trial.
History
In December 2015, ShowMax expanded its reach to audiences in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Canada.
In May 2016, ShowMax expanded to 36 countries in Africa, taking the total number of countries in which ShowMax is available to 65.
In July 2016, ShowMax passed the 10 million views milestone.
In October 2016, ShowMax launched ShowMax Select and ShowMax Premium in Kenya. The ShowMax Select tier is a cheaper offering with a smaller content catalogue and optimised for mobile devices. The subscription is payable using M-Pesa.
In January 2017, ShowMax partnered with SEACOM to put caching servers in Nairobi, Kenya.
In February 2017, ShowMax launched in Poland.
Downloads
ShowMax’s download feature allows users to download up to 25 shows or movies at a time and watch them offline on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones. There are four different quality settings to reduce the amount of data required to download.
Bandwidth capping
In August 2016, ShowMax launched a bandwidth-capping tool that allows users to choose different quality levels. Subscribers can select either a low bandwidth cap of 0.3 GB/hr, a medium cap of 0.7 GB/hr, or leave usage uncapped.
Multiple profiles
In August 2016, ShowMax added a multiple profile feature including the ability to set up child-friendly profiles with four age settings.
Device support
This is a list of supported devices:
ShowMax is available in the following countries:
In Africa: Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Réunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Outside of Africa: In Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.
Content
In Africa the ShowMax catalogue consists of Hollywood, British, Kenyan and South African content. Outside of Africa the ShowMax catalogue consists of kykNet International, M-Net and Via content targeted primarily at an Afrikaans-speaking audience.
In Poland, ShowMax offers local shows and movies including political satire and titles by Polish directors.
ShowMax has content in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Sepedi, Tswana, Sesotho, Xhosa and Polish.