Goodbye Showmax Pro — MultiChoice shuts down sports streaming service
MultiChoice will shut down its Showmax Pro sports streaming service over the next two months, roughly three years after its launch.
In a FAQ post on its website, the company explained that Showmax Pro, in its current form, would be phased out by 30 November 2023 due to the upcoming Showmax relaunch.
MultiChoice has partnered with Comcast’s NBCUniversal to revamp Showmax with technology from the Peacock streaming service.
Showmax Pro will stop taking new sign-ups from 1 October 2023.
For customers with an auto-renewing subscription, charges will stop on 30 October 2023. They can continue streaming Showmax Pro until their last billing cycle ends.
A new sports offering focused solely on English Premier League (EPL) football will be announced with new pricing “soon”, MultiChoice said.
Showmax Pro offers streaming of live football, athletics, select boxing and fighting, and eSports.
Critics of the service often said the EPL was one of its few strengths, but the lack of rugby, cricket, tennis, motorsport, and golf meant it was not really an alternative to DStv Premium.
As compensation for the shutdown, existing Showmax Pro customers in South Africa will be offered a DStv Compact Plus Stream package at the same price as Showmax Pro.
“This deal is exclusively available to existing Showmax Pro customers, who will receive emails from Showmax and DStv with more information about the deal,” the company said.
“Existing Showmax Pro subscribers in select markets will be able to stream even more live sport from SuperSport, a wide variety of live channels and more with an exclusive DStv Stream and Showmax bundle deal.”
“Customers will be able to stream 115+ live channels, access the full catalogue of DStv video-on-demand library and continue to have full access to Showmax’s entertainment catalogue.”
Showmax Pro currently costs R349, while the DStv Compact Plus streaming package costs R469. Therefore, subscribers will effectively be getting a R120 discount per month.
Among the live sports included in this package will be the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, UEFA Champions League, and additional sports like the NBA, NFL and UFC.
In the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, existing Showmax Pro subscribers will be offered a DStv Stream package at the same price as Showmax Pro.
This will also provide access to more live sports from SuperSport, including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and additional sports like the NBA, NFL and UFC.
“Eligible customers will get an email with more details,” MultiChoice said.
MultiChoice added the DStv Stream offers were not available to Showmax Pro mobile customers, but other mobile offers would be on the table in future.
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