ShowMax – subscriber and profit goals for SA

Naspers has high hopes for ShowMax, with the group’s CEO Bob van Dijk stating that the video streaming service is a “priority” for the company.

In an interview with Bloomberg, van Dijk spoke about the potential expansion of ShowMax across South Africa and Africa – with Naspers set to spend $65 million (R866 million) on the service before the end of 2015.

Morgan Stanley analyst Edward Hill-Wood predicts that ShowMax will break even in 2021 with about 800,000 subscribers, while van Dijk said the streaming service will remain unprofitable until at least 2017.

Broadband issues

One of the barriers ShowMax will face is the high price of broadband Internet access in Africa, said van Dijk.

“What people truly need for many reasons is affordable, quality, high-speed [broadband],” he said, adding that providing cheap data was a challenge.

Naspers is considering partnering with wireless operators to provide ShowMax over their networks, and will monitor the roll-out of high-speed cable across Africa, stated the report.