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Ten months later, ShowMax expands to 36 African countries

Since August 2015 South Africans have been enjoying a ShowMax subscription that lets us watch over 15 000 hours of content – and now the service is available in 36 other African countries.

The video-on-demand service recently waded into international waters with the help of Kyknet International but this marks the first time ShowMax has offered its service to Africans outside of South Africa.

Subscribers in the rest of Africa can expect a mix of movies, documentaries, TV series and programming for kids similar to that which South Africans currently enjoy, according to Richard Boorman.

“It’s got largely the same Hollywood and Best of British content as the catalogue in SA, and then has a specially selected local catalogue featuring a Kiswahili language section and a Nollywood section,” Boorman told htxt.africa.

The service will also host an African Film section that will feature classic movies from across the continent.

While in South Africa ShowMax carries a R99 per month subscription fee, the new territories will be pegged at $7.99 – R121,43 at the current rand/dollar exchange rate.

That is a bit more expensive but it is cheaper than the Netflix offering which currently charges $9.99 (R151,82) and to our knowledge has a lot less content created by Africans, for Africans.

ShowMax vs Netflix: Round 1. FIGHT!

Earlier this year Netflix opened up its service to 130 countries around the world much to the elation of many. Granted that was short-lived once people started realising just how little content they had access to.

Chief Product Officer at ShowMax, Barron Ernst explained that ShowMax isn’t trying to compete directly with other video on demand services but rather offer something relevant to subscribers.

“The growth potential of the African market is huge, and we’re not the only internet TV service looking to meet that demand,” Ernst explained in a press statement. “The difference is that we’re not simply cutting and pasting an existing model from elsewhere, and instead have built a product and content selection designed specifically for Africa.”

The full list of countries now able to enjoy ShowMax in Africa includes: Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Reunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

[Source – ShowMax]

 

 

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