Showmax to relaunch with Peacock app and new services

After eight years of setting the pace in the streaming market in South Africa and several other countries in Africa, Showmax is gearing up for a massive strategic shift.

It will relaunch in February 2024 with a new app and product suite, in partnership with international media heavyweight Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky. 

The new Showmax will have three plans: Showmax Entertainment, Showmax Entertainment Mobile and the Showmax Premier League. Powered by SuperSport and made for mobile users, Showmax Premier League is the first standalone Premier League mobile streaming service in Africa and will take every match of the world’s most popular football league to sub-Saharan Africa.  

Showmax CEO Marc Jury says: “We have an incredibly powerful new technology platform, a bold brand that truly represents our driving spirit, and a content slate that is unmatched. No other streaming service in Africa can offer what Showmax is bringing to the table in the new year.” 

Showmax’s migration onto the global Peacock streaming platform means it’s ready to scale, and scale fast, he says. The robust platform is used across the globe and is a leader in sports streaming, having successfully live-streamed the Super Bowl to more than 6-million users simultaneously.  

Known for its track record of setting trends with Showmax Originals, Showmax will be ramping up its content slate across the continent in December in preparation for the relaunch. 

The diverse lineup includes its first 2D animation, Twende, about an adorable boda-boda driving pangolin, as well as second seasons of record-breaking bromance Adulting, smash hit reality series Kwa Mam’Mkhize and Nigerian hit Wura, not to mention the reunion of The Mommy Club.

Launches are on the way for Convict Conman, a new true-crime series (from the producers of Devilsdorp, Rosemary’s Hitlist and Steinheist); Trompoppie, a murder mystery series set in the competitive world of high school drum majorettes; Nigerian legal drama Agu; first Nigerian Original feature film, School Run and reality series Sports Wives. Every Wednesday until 27 December, Showmax will also be releasing new episodes of the breakthrough CANAL+ co-production Spinners, the first African show selected for Canneseries.  

For fans of international content, the new Comcast partnership guarantees Showmax an ongoing supply of hit content, as the media giant owns the likes of Universal Pictures, NBC, Peacock, Sky, DreamWorks Animation and Telemundo. 

Viewers can expect international titles on Showmax to radically increase in the new year, with December’s lineup already including The Super Mario Bros. Movie (the biggest animated opening of all-time, and the biggest global opening of 2023), Fast X (which was the #1 international opening of 2023), Emmy-nominated Poker Face and King Arthur epic The Winter King. Already home to the three most nominated shows at this year’s Emmys, Showmax will continue to draw content from Banijay, BBC, eOne Fremantle, HBO, ITV, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros, among others. 

Showmax was recently named one of the RoW40 (40 Trailblazing Companies that are beating the West) by the New York based global non-profit Rest of World. It said: “These emerging market pioneers are outmaneuvering Silicon Valley.”