{"id":583059,"date":"2025-02-19T12:18:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T10:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=583059"},"modified":"2025-02-19T12:18:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T10:18:58","slug":"showmax-announces-world-first-in-language-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/583059-showmax-announces-world-first-in-language-support.html","title":{"rendered":"Showmax announces world first in language support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>MultiChoice-owned streaming platform Showmax now offers an interface in Kiswahili for Tanzanian subscribers, and it is the first streaming platform to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company said the update marks a major step towards its mission to become Africa&#8217;s leading streaming service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, Kiswahili is the most widely spoken African language in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also says Kiswahili is one of the 10 most widely-spoken languages worldwide, with more than 230 million speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The introduction of the Kiswahili interface is part of a broader strategy to enhance the overall user experience on Showmax for Africans,&#8221; Showmax said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This follows a number of other continental firsts, like becoming the first streamer to make mobile downloads possible for offline viewing, the first to launch a mobile-only plan, the first to launch a standalone Premier League mobile offering, and the first to stream a local concert.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MultiChoice South Africa CEO Byron du Plessis says Showmax&#8217;s local content in local languages resonates with its viewers on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Nine of the 10 most-streamed titles on Showmax last year were local because our audiences want to see content that is related to their local cultures,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Adding Kiswahili as a navigation option makes Showmax even more accessible and personal to a large market segment in South Africa.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Showmax relaunched its platform in February 2024 through its partnership with Comcast&#8217;s NBCUniversal and Sky. It runs on an entirely new platform powered by Peacock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MultiChoice says it is Africa&#8217;s largest producer of local content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;From Kiswahili and isiZulu to Hausa, Yoruba, and Afrikaans, MultiChoice produces content in more African languages than any other content provider globally,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Popular content offered in these languages include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>isiZulu \u2013&nbsp;<em>Adulting<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>IsiXhosa \u2013&nbsp;<em>Soft Life<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>IsiZulu, isiXhosa, Sepedi and Sesotho &#8211;&nbsp;<em>Youngins<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Afrikaans \u2013&nbsp;<em>Koek<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yoruba \u2013&nbsp;<em>Wura<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kiswahili \u2013<em>&nbsp;Pepeta<\/em>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Showmax also says it offers a diverse mix of local and international entertainment with more to come in February 2025, including a record-breaking local reality series, <em>The Mommy Club<\/em>, Tanzania&#8217;s <em>Salaam Dar<\/em>, and Keyna&#8217;s <em>Nairobi Bachelor<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Popular international titles include <em>The White Lotus<\/em> and <em>Suits: LA<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;By expanding its language offerings and reinforcing its local-first approach, Showmax is cementing its position as a leading Pan-African streaming service,&#8221; said MultiChoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Byron-du-plessis-blue-background.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-573654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Byron-du-plessis-blue-background.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Byron-du-plessis-blue-background-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Byron-du-plessis-blue-background-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Byron du Plessis, MultiChoice South Africa CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The relaunched Showmax recently turned a year old, and MultiChoice says it has seen great subscriber growth since. Its financial results for the six months ended 30 September 2024 revealed that its subscribers had grown 50% year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was a landmark year for Showmax, which grew its paying subscriber base, excluding discontinued services, by 50% year-on-year,&#8221; said MultiChoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its results for the period, the broadcaster said it expects this growth to accelerate as its strategic initiatives start to bear fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Showmax streamer was named Best Television\/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa and Entertainment App of the Year at the Stuff App Awards,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The streaming platform also topped JustWatch&#8217;s streaming charts for South Africa in 2024. JustWatch is a streaming guide platform that shows what is available on most platforms in the country, based on user-submitted data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JustWatch lists the top movies on Showmax as <em>Oppenheimer<\/em> and <em>Civil War<\/em>, while the best series were <em>The Rookie<\/em> and <em>Yellowstone<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MultiChoice added that more Showmax titles featured in the top 10 than any other streamer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Showmax says it is the first streaming service in the world to launch support for Kiswahili \u2014\u00a0the most widely spoken African language in Sub-Saharan Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":515251,"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":[97897,98845,475,47934,68556,32140,24907],"class_list":["post-583059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-byron-du-plessis","tag-kiswahili","tag-multichoice","tag-nbcuniversal","tag-peacock","tag-showmax","tag-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583059"}],"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\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583059"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583093,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583059\/revisions\/583093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}