Streaming isn’t as great as it could be in Africa. Sure, we’ve got the big hitters like Netflix, Amazon Prime, MultiChoice’s Showmax and the abhorrent Disney+ app in South Africa. But compare our library to that of say, the US, and you’ll immediately notice some pretty big differences.
That could be about to change what with MultiChoice’s announcement of a partnership between itself and Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky. The resulting new group will be known as Earth UK, which will trade as the Showmax Group. The new company is still majority-owned by MultiChoice with a 70% cut, NBCUniversal will own the other 30%.
The Showmax Group itself is undergoing a major overhaul and will soon be powered by Peacock. For those that are unaware, Peacock is NBCUniversal’s own streaming service.
Strutting around
The ‘new’ service will still be known as Showmax, though it’ll feature Peacock’s technology and a whole host of new content across the 50 markets that MultiChoice currently controls in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It will build on Showmax’s success to date and strive to create the leading streaming service in Africa,” the broadcasting group said.
The service will include MultiChoice’s local content, including Showmax Originals, and content from MultiChoice’s channels such as Mzansi Magic, Africa Magic and Maisha Magic. Comcast is adding its own local content licensed from NBCUniversal and Sky. Additional content from third-party providers such as HBO, Warner Brothers International and Sony and live English Premier League matches are included in the offing.
“By using Comcast’s global, scalable technology – in particular NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform that already has over 20 million paid subscribers in the US – and their significant, international content portfolio, the new Showmax Group will be exceptionally well-placed to scale rapidly and become the leading platform in Africa,” said MultiChoice.
Read More: A look at MultiChoice’s planned ‘strategy’ against Netflix and other streamers
But, when?
Unfortunately, MultiChoice has not yet been able to go into further detail about the upcoming service. Until the service is ready to launch, Showmax customers will continue to use the service as they normally would.
“Due to competitive sensitivities, specifics about the unique service offering, how existing subscribers can seamlessly migrate to the new service and detailed pricing will be announced closer to the launch date,” MultiChoice stated.
The deal is not yet finalized, with certain conditions still needing to be met before it can complete. However, the deal is expected to complete by the latter half of April 2023. We’ll keep you up to date on when that’ll be, and what the new Showmax will look like then.
Source: BusinessTech