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ShowMax: One year on and 10 million views later

ShowMax has celebrated a year since its launch by revealing it’s clocked up a massive 10 million views in that time.

“My intention isn’t to boast, because we’ve got loads more to do, but dispassionately I’d say we’ve achieved a fair amount [in a year],”said Barron Ernst, Chief Product Officer for ShowMax.

“[ShowMax has been] Enabling content downloads, setting up data usage caps, putting together a cash voucher system, and implementing multiple user profiles are some of the tougher technical challenges we solved, with additional tweaks and upgrades taking place on an almost daily basis,” he said.

ShowMax has also changed its branding, introducing a new log with a brand new colour scheme for its birthday.

The streaming media service revealed that it has gathered some data through requesting feedback from around 1 000 subscribers; it’s learned for example that peak viewing time is between 6pm and 11pm in the evening, reaching an absolute peak at around 8pm.

“Interestingly, the busiest days aren’t Friday or Saturday (we thought date night might be our killer function); instead we hit peak-couch-potato on Sundays,” Ernst said.

Ernst said that the customers polled by ShowMax said that they’d signed up to the streaming service because it offers more content than regular television. Around  22% said that it gave them access to the latest content, and 16% felt that the service was good value for money.

“Interestingly, given what we know of the binge-watching global phenomenon, only 13% listed binge-watching as the main reason for using this type of service,” he said.

The majority of subscribers (68%) tend to watch on a computer, while 63% make use of a tablet, and 37% watch content on their smartphone.

ShowMax survived its first year in the brutal local streaming landscape, but what are the plans for the future?

“Our take on the state of the industry one year in is that the time is right for SVOD in Africa. Having said that, it’s by no means an easy sell or an easy ride. We firmly believe that this isn’t a game of one-size-fits-all, and that localising your service, content, and partnerships is key,” Ernst said.

Now, if ShowMax would just reveal how many subscribers it has, that would be lovely.

 

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