Showmax Pro service launches in South Africa today – includes live sports

Local streamer Showmax recently launched its Showmax Pro package to several African countries and has now revealed that the premium service will be making its way to South Africa… today! While Showmax already has a fair number of movies and series, Pro will offer subscribers an additional range of live sports and news channels to go along with the traditional content available for streaming.

Sports, as Showmax owner Multichoice has proved through its DStv satellite TV service, is a lucrative business in the entertainment market. The DStv Premium package’s sports offering – which offers more live sport than any other broadcaster in the world – is often the core reason people are willing to pay R1000 a month. But now with Showmax Pro, Multichoice is hoping to lure people who perhaps aren’t interested in a bigger satellite package and give them something more affordable, while still allowing them to get some of their sporting fixes.

Showmax Pro will be offered as a smaller mobile package for R225 per month or R449 per month for a standard package, which gives you the option of more devices and concurrent HD-streaming across multiple devices. That’s a lot more than the current R99 per month you pay for the traditional Showmax package, but if you’re a sports enthusiast, that’s still a whole cheaper than DStv premium.

As for the sports channels that are available, the Showmax website details the following:

• Football: English Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, FA Cup, UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues (SA only), and Premier Soccer League.
• Athletics: Diamond League, and World Challenge League.
• Running: Berlin, Boston, London, NYC, and Soweto Marathons.
• Boxing: Selected IBF, WBA, WBO, WBC and African Boxing events.
• Other (SA only): Swimming, extreme sports, eSports, basketball, triathlon, horse racing, EFC, netball, and hockey.

That’s a lot of sports, though critically the likes of rugby, cricket, golf, motorsport, and tennis (although all Grand Slams and ATP Tour events will be broadcast in other African countries) are missing. These are the sports that arguably drive the most subscribers to the DStv premium package, so I’m not convinced many big sports fan will be willing to pay this extra money each month and still not get access to some of their favourites sports leagues around the world. Yes, the football, athletics, boxing and other sports leagues all have a big following in South Africa, but by not featuring some of these other big sports, the appeal may likely to be limited. At least they have eSports, which should appeal to many people in this forum.

I think this is a great opportunity for Showmax to offer something none of the other rivals in the streaming service offer, but they will certainly need to build up some of their sports and live event offerings to make it worth people’s while. Hopefully, for that price, people will soon start getting some of the other big aforementioned sports along with big events like the Olympics.

Do you think Showmax has a chance to grow their market considerably with these new sports services or do you think it’s still far too expensive for your wallet?

Note: Unfortunately, due to some sports licensing deals with Multichoice, there will be no 7-day trial period available Showmax Pro

Last Updated: August 19, 2020