Showmax 2.0 mobile-only subscriber surge
Mobile-only streaming subscriptions offer an affordable means of keeping up to speed on sports and entertainment, and Showmax says its mobile subscriptions have proven popular across African markets.
Showmax chief operating officer Jo Heshu said that while the streaming platform’s mobile-only plans have always been popular in South Africa, its relaunched offerings have had an even more substantial uptake.
“In South Africa, the combo Showmax Entertainment Mobile + Premier League plan for R99 per month is the most popular with live sports fans,” said Heshu.
“Outside of South Africa, we see a slightly higher number of Showmax subscribers on mobile-only plans than locally.”
He did not comment on how the popularity of its mobile-only plans compares to the Showmax Entertainment subscription, which lets customers stream on various device types.
Heshu said part of the relaunched platform’s success is due to partnerships with companies like MTN in South Africa, Safaricom in Kenya, and Infinix in Nigeria.
“Data bundle offerings with mobile partners such as MTN and Safaricom, as well as smartphone brands such as Infinix Nigeria, are key to this success, making Showmax affordable and accessible to a mobile-friendly African market,” he said.
A Disney+ spokesperson told MyBroadband that the company cannot share any subscriber data specific to the South African market.
“We are really pleased with the uptake of Disney+ overall since its launch and the continued engagement we are seeing of subscribers with the incredible, vast Disney+ content catalogue including from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and general entertainment with Star,” they said.
MyBroadband also asked Netflix about the popularity of its mobile-only plan, but we didn’t receive feedback by the time of publication.
Mobile-only streaming plan showdown
A MyBroadband analysis in late March 2024 revealed that Showmax’s Entertainment Mobile subscription is more affordable than Disney+ and Netflix’s mobile-only plans.
The Showmax Entertainment Mobile subscription in South Africa is priced at R39 per month, compared to R49 per month for Disney+ Mobile or Netflix Mobile.
It should be noted that this doesn’t take data costs into account. Disney+ Mobile subscribers get 500MB of free data for Disney+ on MTN’s network.
While MTN also offers bundled deals for Showmax’s mobile-only plans, these make them more expensive than the other offerings. The Showmax-MTN bundles are summarised in the table below.
| Showmax 2.0 MTN product bundles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Product | Price | Bundled data |
| Showmax Premier League LivePass | R79 per month | Data for all live games at default quality setting |
| Showmax Mobile weekly | R19 per week | 1GB streaming data per week |
| Showmax Mobile monthly | R59 per month | 2GB (regular) + 3GB (promo) streaming data per month |
Showmax also offers the best streaming quality of the three, with 1080p Full High Definition streaming being the highest possible quality, compared to 480p Standard Definition on the other platforms.
However, it is down on content compared to Netflix’s catalogue. Netflix subscribers can choose from 4,024 movies and 2,654 TV shows.
Conversely, as of late March 2024, Showmax Entertainment Mobile subscribers had access to an estimated 1,342 movies and 596 TV shows.
Disney+’s catalogue features 500 movies and 15,000 episodes — not to be confused with TV shows.
The MultiChoice-owned streaming platform is the only one of the three with a mobile-only sports streaming option in the form of Showmax Premier League.
For R69 per month, subscribers can stream live Premier League football matches, as well as shows and highlights.
The platform also offers a combined Showmax Entertainment Mobile and Showmax Premier League subscription for R99 per month.
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