Showmax under siege

TV viewership in South Africa is declining as viewers move to streaming, and local streaming services like Showmax often lack content compared to major players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Local pay-TV broadcaster MultiChoice previously acknowledged that streaming services pose “an existential competitive threat,” and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) shares this belief.

“On-demand music and video online streaming services are seriously disrupting the industry globally,” it said in its annual performance plan for 2024/25.

When asked about the DCDT’s comments, MultiChoice acknowledged the disruptive nature of streaming services and said it was pushing investment in local content to stay competitive.

“MultiChoice is the biggest funder of local content in Africa and produces thousands of hours of local content annually, further expanding our local content library,” it said.

“Our customers love to watch stories that resonate with them.”

While it is true that MultiChoice’s platforms offer a vast range of local African content, many viewers also want to keep up to date with popular international shows.

This is where MultiChoice’s Showmax streaming service could fall short.

MyBroadband compared the total content offering on Showmax’s Entertainment package to that available on major platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Streaming search engine JustWatch shows that Prime Video offers the most extensive library of the lot, with 8,746 titles in total, comprising 7,391 movies and 1,355 series.

Netflix trumps Prime Video in terms of the number of series it offers. Netflix subscribers can choose from 2,673 series, some of which are Netflix originals and exclusive to the platform.

It also offers 3,953 movies for a total of 6,626 titles.

Showmax’s content offering is smaller, offering 2,171 movies and 917 series for a total content offering of 3,088 titles.

However, Showmax offers many titles from HBO and other international partners that are not available through other streaming services in South Africa.

It should be noted that Showmax’s statistics come directly from MultiChoice. The company said JustWatch’s system undercounts the number of titles on its platform.

The chart below compares the content offerings of each streaming platform in terms of pure title numbers.

Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video vs Showmax — number of titles (July 2024)

However, Showmax’s head of content, Nicole van Niekerk, disagrees.

“I don’t think anyone needs more content to watch right now; audiences want better content to watch,” said Van Niekerk.

She noted that Showmax currently offers IMDB’s most popular TV show in the world: House of the Dragon, while offering three of last year’s biggest global hits, including Barbie and Oppenheimer.

It also currently offers shows like Succession, The Last of Us and The White Lotus.

“Having the largest catalogue isn’t the ambition; having the stories people love is,” added Van Niekerk.

Streaming race for South African broadcasters

South Africa’s three main broadcasters are bolstering their digital streaming services as viewers migrate to online-based entertainment.

The Market Research Foundation released its MAPS data overview in May 2024, revealing that TV viewership numbers had fallen significantly over the past three years.

Through interviews and surveys with a sample of the population, it found that viewership had declined from a peak of 75% of interviewees in Q3 2021 to 54% in Q4 2023.

In anticipation of this global trend, MultiChoice, eMedia, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) have stepped up their streaming businesses.

MultiChoice has offered DStv streaming and Showmax for several years. However, they had previously been complementary to its satellite TV subscriptions.

It launched streaming-only plans in December 2020 and rebranded to DStv Stream in July 2023.

MultiChoice said the number of users on its streaming-only packages increased by 139% since the relaunch, of which 90% are new subscribers.

To improve and expand Showmax, MultiChoice partnered with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal in 2023.

The relaunched service, informally called Showmax 2.0, went live in February 2024. During its 2023/24 results presentation, the broadcaster revealed that it had retained 88% of its migrated base and grew subscriptions by another 16%.

The SABC took over the TelkomOne streaming service in November 2022 and rebranded it SABC+.

This gave the broadcaster a running start with an established user base. It said the base had grown to 600,000 in a year.

Since its relaunch, SABC+ has undergone two revamps. The first scrapped the requirement that users create and log in with an account linked to their email address or phone number.

This had a profound effect on accumulating new users. In May 2024, SABC corporate affairs and marketing head Mmoni Seapolelo told MyBroadband that the service had one million monthly active users.

It underwent its second revamp in early July 2024, adding new features and reintroducing the requirement for an account to log in.

eMedia launched eVOD in August 2021. The streaming service is available on the web and via a mobile app.

In early 2024, the broadcaster said the service was the fastest-growing subscription-free streaming platform in the country.

While much of the content on eVOD is free, the broadcaster also offers a paid Premium subscription with additional features.

eMedia has also benefitted somewhat from the success of international streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video.

Its Media Film Service owns Cape Town Film Studios and has produced multiple popular titles for international streaming services.

Most recently, it produced the live-action adaptation of One Piece, which was among Netflix’s most-viewed shows in 2023.

One Piece. Emily Rudd as Nami in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix