Showmax Pro, the top subscription tier to the streaming service that offers a decent mix of both local and international entertainment, brought the highly sought after addition of live sport to (some) screens in July of this year.
Countries such as Nigeria and Kenya were blessed with live coverage of the “Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and PSL games” and a whole bunch more. It’s a pretty important inclusion for Showmax, something that users have been after for some time now. With that in mind, it must come as rather pleasant news that Showmax Pro and Showmax Pro Mobile are heading to more countries…but not South Africa just yet.
As per a press release received this morning, Showmax announced this release of the new subscription tier in 40 more countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The full list of included countries is:
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Republic of Congo
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Djibouti
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Liberia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Réunion
- Rwanda
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Pricing for these countries is as follows:
- Showmax Mobile $3.99
- Showmax $7.99
- Showmax Pro Mobile $8.99
- Showmax Pro $17.99
Notably, South Africa is still not on the list of countries that will be able to receive Showmax Pro but a spokesperson for the company said that it was “aiming to do that before the end of August”.
To speculate as to possible reasons why South Africa has yet to be included in Showmax Pro, I would hazard a guess and say the problem might lie in licensing disagreements with local sports broadcaster SuperSport. I have no idea if the two have clashed regarding the rights to broadcast and stream live sport but honestly, I have no idea why Showmax Pro would take so long to reach us down here. It’s a strange situation but at least there’s some kind of plan for the future.