Update — 24/01/24: MTN South Africa and Showmax have responded to our queries and cleared up any confusion surrounding MTN and Showmax’s promotional data deals:
Previously, the Premier League LivePass subscription mentioned that customers would have “enough data to watch all Premier League games on a mobile device on Showmax’s default data setting.” MTN has confirmed that, by default, Showmax sets a user’s data setting to ‘Basic’ (or 360p resolution).
This leaves customers with “enough” data to watch 8 out of 10 Premier League matches at any given weekend. Sure, that isn’t “all Premier League games” but MTN’s FUP maximums have accounted for the fact that four of the ten matches are played at the same time, eliminating the need for more data.
MTN also confirmed that customers planning to only watch 3-4 matches per weekend will have enough data to use Showmax’s ‘Good’ data setting which offers 432p resolution on mobile. Customers only watching 1 or 2 Premier League matches per week can use the ‘Best’ data setting to unlock 1080p resolution.
Previously, the monthly Showmax Entertainment Mobile package was listed at R60/m and included 5GB of data per month. This was broken up into 2GB of “streaming data” and “an additional 3GB promotional streaming data during the period offer.” MTN has now confirmed that the promotional period will run from 12 February 2024 to 1 July 2024 after which, the offer will only include 2GB of data per month.
Original Story:
Now that Showmax’s plans to relaunch are out in the open, it’s time for MultiChoice’s home-grown streamer to start doing some shilling. What better way to kick things off than by hooking up with MTN to offer its customers three new bundles, which include access to the new service and the necessary data to go with it.
Got a LivePass?
The whole idea — besides being a money printer for both Showmax and MTN — is to make the service more accessible. At least, that’s what MTN’s General Manager for Digital Services, Jason Probert had to say on the subject.
“At MTN, we are committed to providing all our customers with the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of a modern connected life. Our partnership with Showmax marks a significant leap forward in this journey, giving our customers the ability to access the world’s most popular sports league at an incredibly affordable price while enjoying access to the best network in South Africa.”
The “world’s most popular sports league” that Probert is referring to is the English Premier League which Showmax incidentally does have the rights to broadcast — with a catch: it’s only available to customers that choose the Premier League Showmax tier, a mobile-only plan that costs R70/m and keeps the streamer from encroatching on SuperSport’s TV viewers.
Mobile-only is a hard sell, though. It’s made the job a little easier, however, with Showmax Premier League LivePass — the first of MTN’s three Showmax-centric bundles. LivePass will cost R80/m, only R10 more than Showmax’s Premier League standard package and offers access to Showmax Premier League with that additional R10 paying for enough data to watch all 380 Premier League matches on the “default data setting” in the app.
That’s… not a bad deal. We think. Access to the Premier League doesn’t come cheap (we’re looking at you, DStv) so for customers looking to watch their matches on the go, this is a perfect option. But, Showmax’s announcement fails to mention what the “default data setting” is. The service offers four viewing modes: ‘Data saving’, ‘Basic’ ‘Good’ and ‘Best’.
It’s also worth mentioning that the LivePass package is subject to “certain Fair Usage Policy (FUP) maximums, which is managed weekly,” though the streamer did not supply what those FUP maximums were at the time of writing.
Read More: Showmax wants you to know that it is streaming for Africa
Entertainment Weekly
Next up is Showmax Entertainment Mobile Weekly, a subscription that’ll take R20 out of your account once a week in exchange for access to the streamer’s basic mobile player — without all the Premier League matches. It’ll cost more than the streamer’s regular R40/m price point, but MTN is throwing in 1GB of data per week, which it reckons will be useful.
“Customers can binge up to 25 hours of content each week for less than the price of a cup of coffee when using Showmax’s data-saving setting that caps data usage at 40MB an hour.”
We, on the other hand, think differently. Whereas the LivePass subscription is a potentially decent value offering, Mobile Weekly is not. The streamer wasn’t as quick to mention that following its guidelines and capping data usage at 40MB/h would result in a 144p resolution — a resolution many would find unwatchable, especially on a mobile device.
It’s almost saved by the final offering, which is purely a monthly version of the previous offering. It’ll cost R60/m — R20/m more than a regular subscription to Showmax Entertainment Mobile — but comes with an additional 5GB of data thrown in. It’s not a ‘true’ 5GB, however, as it lists 2GB of that as “streaming data” and the remaining 3GB of data as “promotional streaming data during the offer period.” What that means exactly, we’re not so sure.
Showmax and MTN’s deals will go live on 12 February and can be purchased via MTN Play or the MTN website.
We’ve reached out to Showmax and MTN for clarification surrounding the 3GB of “promotional streaming data”, the app’s “default data settings” and what the LivePass package FUP maximums are and will update this article if we hear back.