Showmax : ce qu'il faut savoir

When Showmax went live on 19 August 2015, it carried more than just a catalogue of TV series and films. Showmax s'impose comme l'un des sujets qui mobilisent l'attention en South Africa ce jeudi.

Les faits

• When Showmax went live on 19 August 2015, it carried more than just a catalogue of TV series and films.
• Once positioned as Africa’s answer to Netflix, homegrown streaming pioneer Showmax fades to black tonight.
• ShowMax – then capitalised in both syllables – arrived with 11 000 hours of content, a seven-day free trial and a flat R99/month fee for unlimited access.
• Showmax Pro launched in 2020 at R449/month, bundling SuperSport-fed Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and PSL games with the existing entertainment library.
• In March 2023, MultiChoice handed 30% of Showmax to Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky in exchange for Peacock’s streaming technology and a content pipeline from HBO, Warner Bros, Sony and others.

L'essentiel

Dans le détail, Once positioned as Africa’s answer to Netflix, homegrown streaming pioneer Showmax fades to black tonight.

Sur le fond, ShowMax – then capitalised in both syllables – arrived with 11 000 hours of content, a seven-day free trial and a flat R99/month fee for unlimited access.

Concrètement, Showmax Pro launched in 2020 at R449/month, bundling SuperSport-fed Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and PSL games with the existing entertainment library.

Au-delà de ce constat, In March 2023, MultiChoice handed 30% of Showmax to Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky in exchange for Peacock’s streaming technology and a content pipeline from HBO, Warner Bros, Sony and others.

Reste à préciser que the 5 March announcement that Showmax would be discontinued was a formality.

Les chiffres

À noter par ailleurs : Showmax in 2015 was the first serious attempt by a South African company to build a streaming service that could stand on its own against the global giants – not as a regional reseller, not as a niche play, but as a homegrown product that understood its market better than any imported alternative could.

Plus précisément, Naspers had seen Reed Hastings signal a 200-country expansion in January 2015 and decided it would not cede home turf without a fight.

Dans la foulée, when Canal+ took control of MultiChoice in September 2025, the verdict was swift.

À ce stade, Canal+’s 2025 results, days later, branded the platform an “expensive failure”.

Le contexte

Reste à préciser que it carried Naspers’s conviction that South Africa could build a globally competitive streaming service from Johannesburg, beat Netflix to its own market and use local content as the wedge to keep it there.

À noter par ailleurs : Today that conviction will be quietly switched off.

Plus précisément, it is hard to overstate how different the world looked when Showmax launched.

Dans la foulée, In January, group CEO Maxime Saada called Showmax “not a commercial success”.

À ce stade, Read: Showmax Originals find a new home on DStv Stream.

Recherches associées

Plusieurs requêtes connexes accompagnent ce sujet : Afrique du Sud : Multichoice, filiale de Canal+, débranche sa plateforme de streaming Showmax • Showmax : Canal+ met fin au “Netflix sud-africain” • Multichoice débranche sa plateforme de streaming Showmax • MultiChoice, filiale de CANAL+, annonce la cessation prochaine du service Showmax, suite à des pertes annu... • Multichoice met fin au service de streaming Showmax après 11 ans d'existence • Streaming : Multichoice annonce l’arrêt de Showmax.

À retenir

• The 5 March announcement that Showmax would be discontinued was a formality.
• It carried Naspers’s conviction that South Africa could build a globally competitive streaming service from Johannesburg, beat Netflix to its own market and use local content as the wedge to keep it there.
• It is hard to overstate how different the world looked when Showmax launched.
• Recherches qui explosent : Afrique du Sud : Multichoice, filiale de Canal+, débranche sa plateforme de streaming Showmax, Showmax : Canal+ met fin au “Netflix sud-africain”, Multichoice débranche sa plateforme de streaming Showmax, MultiChoice, filiale de CANAL+, annonce la cessation prochaine du service Showmax, suite à des pertes annu....