{"id":521603,"date":"2024-01-15T10:11:30","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T08:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=521603"},"modified":"2024-01-16T08:12:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T06:12:41","slug":"multichoice-announces-showmax-2-0-launch-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/521603-multichoice-announces-showmax-2-0-launch-date.html","title":{"rendered":"MultiChoice announces Showmax 2.0 launch date \u2014\u00a0with a price cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

MultiChoice has announced that Showmax\u2019s general entertainment package will cost R89 per month from 12 February 2024 when it relaunches on its Peacock-based platform.<\/p>\n

Showmax has been R99 per month since it launched nearly nine years ago, on 19 August 2015.<\/p>\n

At a media event on Monday, MultiChoice South Africa and Showmax CEO Marc Jury announced that the Showmax Premier League mobile plan will be R69 per month, while Showmax Mobile will be R39 per month.<\/p>\n

Showmax will also launch a bundled mobile-only general entertainment and Premier League service for R99 per month.<\/p>\n

Jury said they have also secured partnerships with third parties, which will offer packages at an even better price point through those resellers.<\/p>\n

A registration campaign for the new Showmax will begin on 23 January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marc Jury, MultiChoice South Africa and Showmax CEO<\/p><\/div>\n

A lot is riding on the success of Showmax\u2019s relaunch, with parent company MultiChoice pinning most of its future growth on the platform\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

MultiChoice told investors last year they expect it to generate $1 billion<\/strong><\/a> (R18.7 billion) in net revenue in 5 years.<\/p>\n

The pay-TV operator first revealed its plan to overhaul Showmax in March 2023, when it announced a deal to sell 30% of its streaming service<\/strong><\/a> to Comcast\u2019s NBCUniversal and Sky.<\/p>\n

However, Jury said the dream of Showmax 2.0 started as a discussion between MultiChoice chair Imtiaz Patel and new Showmax chairman Andrea Zappia two years ago.<\/p>\n

The partnership gives Showmax access to the technology powering NBCUniversal\u2019s Peacock, as well as its content.<\/p>\n

In addition to featuring hours of new content<\/strong><\/a> and refreshed apps and user interfaces, Showmax 2.0 will offer up to full HD video and Dolby 5.1 surround sound.<\/p>\n

Showmax 2.0 will still run across smartphones, media boxes, game consoles, and smart TV platforms.<\/p>\n

As part of the modernisation, Showmax warned that some older platforms will not be supported.<\/p>\n

Asked whether they are considering 4K support to keep pace with international competitors like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon, Jury said they are considering it.<\/p>\n

However, it was not a priority for the relaunch because they found the data consumption was excessive for most of the African market, clocking in at around 14GB per hour.<\/p>\n

Jury said they realise that 4K support is needed at the top end of the market. However, in the short term, at the price points they have announced, they are unashamedly targeting the mass market to ensure Showmax reaches scale.<\/p>\n

Existing features users have come to expect, including downloading content for watching later, kids profiles, and controlling the quality of the video to reduce data consumption are available on the new platform.<\/p>\n

The tables below summarise Showmax 2.0\u2019s supported platforms and estimated data usage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Showmax 2.0 supported platforms<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Platform<\/th>\nSupported Version<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Web<\/strong><\/td>\nChrome 102+ (Windows\/Mac)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Firefox 102+ (Windows\/Mac)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MS Edge 102+ (Windows\/Mac)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Safari 14+ (Mac)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smartphones \/ tablets<\/strong><\/td>\niOS 14 or above<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Android 7.0 or above<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Huawei<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LG TV<\/strong><\/td>\nLG WebOS 3.5 or above<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2016+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LG WebOS 3.0\u20133.5, support being added for launch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Samsung TV<\/strong><\/td>\n2016+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hisense TV<\/strong><\/td>\n2020+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
STBs<\/strong><\/td>\nSTB Explora Ultra<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
STB Streama<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Android TV<\/strong><\/td>\nWide variety of Android TV-enabled Smart TVs, such as Sony Bravia, and set-top boxes, including NVIDIA Shield, running Android OS 5.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Apple TV<\/strong><\/td>\nApple TV HD (4th Generation or above) with tvOS 16 or above<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chromecast<\/strong><\/td>\n1st Generation or above including Chromecast with Google TV<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PlayStation<\/strong><\/td>\nPlayStation 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xbox<\/strong><\/td>\nXbox One<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nXbox Series X<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nXbox Series S<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n
\n

Showmax 2.0 estimated data usage<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Profile<\/th>\nMax resolution<\/th>\nOn-demand<\/th>\nLive (sports – mobile only)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Data Saving<\/td>\n144p<\/td>\n40MB\/h (Downloads: 50MB\/h)<\/td>\n40MB\/h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Basic<\/td>\n360p<\/td>\n160MB\/h<\/td>\n240MB\/h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Good<\/td>\n432p<\/td>\n270MB\/h<\/td>\n500MB\/h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Best<\/td>\n1080p<\/td>\n1.2GB\/h<\/td>\n2.3GB\/h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Showmax has announced when its overhauled Peacock-based platform is launching \u2014\u00a0along with its first price adjustment in nearly nine years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":521609,"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_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[35,85277,475,32140],"class_list":["post-521603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-headline","tag-marc-jury","tag-multichoice","tag-showmax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521603"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521611,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521603\/revisions\/521611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}