{"id":291272,"date":"2019-01-10T13:23:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T11:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=291272"},"modified":"2019-01-10T13:31:13","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T11:31:13","slug":"showmax-is-here-to-stay-multichoice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/291272-showmax-is-here-to-stay-multichoice.html","title":{"rendered":"Showmax is here to stay &#8211; MultiChoice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Naspers will\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/289574-showmax-shutting-down-streaming-in-europe.html\"><strong>shut down<\/strong><\/a> its Showmax video streaming service in Poland on 31 January 2019, which raised questions about the company\u2019s sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>Showmax first expanded to Europe in February 2017 by adding Poland to its list of markets. Former Google executive Maciej Sojka was leading the operation.<\/p>\n<p>Although Showmax gained traction in Poland, Naspers said it will no longer be a good strategic fit for the company after MultiChoice Group has been unbundled from Naspers.<\/p>\n<p>Closing Showmax Poland shows that the service was likely not profitable, which has raised concerns about Showmax\u2019s future in South Africa and other regions.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Good in SA<\/h3>\n<p>MultiChoice Connected Video spokesperson Richard Boorman told MyBroadband that the decision to shut down Showmax Poland does not impact the future of Showmax, however.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that Showmax Poland was separated from Showmax Africa when they created MultiChoice Connected Video in late 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Even with Showmax Poland ending operations, the Showmax development team in the Czech Republic &#8211; which is responsible for the Showmax tech stack &#8211; remains in place.<\/p>\n<p>The Showmax platform also has different content layers sitting on top of it for different regions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One for Poland.<\/li>\n<li>One for Africa (which is regionally subdivided).<\/li>\n<li>One for the diaspora service available in countries like Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA, and Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIn essence, the only change from here will be the closure of the Showmax Poland business,\u201d Boorman said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the various Showmax services in Africa will continue to run as before, as will the diaspora service \u2013 both managed by MultiChoice\u2019s Connected Video.<\/p>\n<p>The positive news from Showmax comes as streaming platforms gain popularity internationally, taking traditional pay-TV users away from their existing services.<\/p>\n<p>In developed markets like the US, pay-TV users are leaving their providers in droves to sign up for Netflix and Showmax.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/289574-showmax-shutting-down-streaming-in-europe.html\">Showmax shutting down streaming in Europe<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Naspers is shutting down its Showmax video streaming service in Poland, but its other services remain healthy, the company said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":175763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[35,475,1167,32140],"class_list":["post-291272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-richard-boorman","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291598,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291272\/revisions\/291598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}