Stream of the Day
Showmax Premier League set to kick off
Africa gets its first standalone live Premier League mobile streaming service, along with a flood of new Originals writes, JASON BANNIER.
Showmax is set to be relaunched in February with a massive slate of African originals – and the continent’s first standalone live Premier League mobile streaming plan.
The new Showmax is launching with a new look, new app, and new product suite, as parent company MultiChoice partners with Comcast’s NBC Universal and Sky.
More than 1 300 hours of Showmax Originals across Africa are releasing this year, including a record 21 Showmax Originals in February alone.
Highlights include Angela Makholwa’s serial killer thriller Red Ink; international co-production Catch Me A Killer, based on the memoir of Micki Pistorius, South Africa’s first serial killer profiler; and a strong reality TV lineup. International content will be supplied by some of the world’s best entertainment brands, including Universal Pictures, NBC, Peacock, Sky, DreamWorks Animation, HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Sony.
Reality TV fans will be spoilt for choice, with Widows Unveiled; Sadau Sisters, led by Nigerian actress Rahama Sadau; Chocolate Kings, about male exotic dancers; Ghana-set dating show What Will People Say?; and new seasons of hits like The Mommy Club and The Real Housewives of Durban.
There’s also high school drama Youngins, from iEmmy nominees Tshedza Pictures; university drama Wyfie; an epic drama series set in Igboland, Cheta’m; crime drama Koek; comedy Ekhaya Backpackers; Nigerian documentary series Free Men; and new seasons of hit like Flawsome (Nigeria), Single Kiasi (Kenya) and ENO (Ghana).
Showmax will be releasing four films for Valentine’s Day: Forever Yena, Intlawulo and Matilda en Matthys from South Africa and The Counsellor from Nigeria.
At launch, international highlights will include Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, twoof the 10 biggest box office hits of 2023;the second season of Halo, express from the US; Lawman: Bass Reeves, from Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo in a Critics Choice- and Golden Globe-nominated performance; missing persons procedural Found, which was NBC’s biggest launch on Peacock yet; Neill Blomkamp’s #1 US box office hit Gran Turismo; and box sets of classic NBC comedies like The Office and Parks and Recreation. It’s also been confirmed that box sets of HBO’s House of the Dragon and the second season of the phenomenal HBO hit The Last of Us will be heading to Showmax in the future.
New international content like Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Halo will be available in HD with Dolby 5.1 surround sound: one of the benefits of Showmax’s migration onto the global Peacock streaming platform. The platform is used across the globe and is a leader in sports streaming, having successfully live streamed the Super Bowl to more than six million users simultaneously, so positions Showmax as ready to scale, and scale fast.
“2024 is a big year for Showmax,” says CEO Marc Jury. “We will be kicking it off with a content slate packed with world-class entertainment from the world’s biggest brands plus more African Originals than ever before and the first ever mobile Premier League plan for Africa.”
Showmax Premier League will live stream all 380 matches from the English premier division, the world’s most popular football league, on mobile. Showmax Premier League will give individual mobile users in more than 40 markets in Africa exclusive live access to every Premier League match, as well as in-depth analyses, highlights and an extensive library of Premier League content on their mobile devices. Backed by SuperSport, Showmax Premier League can be bundled with the Showmax Entertainment plans.
The new Showmax will have three plans: Showmax Entertainment, Showmax Entertainment Mobile and Showmax Premier League Mobile. Details on pricing and launch dates have not yet been announced.
