This February, Showmax, a content streaming outfit, will be releasing a record 21 Showmax Originals from four African countries.
The new releases include five originals from Nigeria, a revamped international content slate, and the continent’s first standalone Premier League mobile streaming plan.
Also, more than 1, 300 hours of new Showmax Originals will be released in 2024 across Africa to enable viewers to watch an average of more than 3.5 hours of fresh local content on Showmax every day of the year.
The Nigerian Original content slate features its first epic drama series, Cheta’m, directed by James Omokwe; reality TV series Sadau Sisters, starring Nigerian actress Rahama Sadau and her three sisters; documentary series Freemen; romantic comedy movie The Counsellor; and a new season of the hit drama series Flawsome.
The diverse launch lineup also includes adaptations of two South African local bestsellers: Angela Makholwa’s serial killer thriller Red Ink, and Catch Me A Killer, the memoir of Micki Pistorius, South Africa’s first serial killer profiler.
More from the South African Original content slate: a high school drama Youngins, from iEmmy nominees Tshedza Pictures; a university drama, Wyfie; crime drama Koek; comedy Ekhaya Backpackers; and films Forever Yena, Intlawulo and Matilda en Matthys.
Reality TV fans will be spoilt for choice, with South African shows Widows Unveiled; Chocolate Kings, about male exotic dancers; new seasons of The Mommy Club and The Real Housewives of Durban as well as dating reality What Will People Say? from Ghana.
New seasons of the Kenyan Showmax Original hit Single Kiasi and Ghanaian drama series ENO are also pegged for its February relaunch.
For fans of international content, the MultiChoice and Comcast partnership guarantees Showmax an ongoing supply of hit content, as the media giant owns the likes of Universal Pictures, NBC, Peacock, Sky, DreamWorks Animation and Telemundo. Already home to the three most nominated shows at next week’s Emmys® and the TV drama winner at last night’s Golden Globes, Showmax will continue to draw titles from Banijay, BBC, eOne, Fremantle, HBO, ITV, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery, among others, so viewers can expect international titles on Showmax to radically increase this year.
At launch, international highlights will include Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, two of the 10 biggest box office hits of 2023; the second season of Halo, express from the US; Lawman: Bass Reeves, from Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo in a Critics Choice- and Golden Globe-nominated performance; missing persons procedural Found, which was NBC’s biggest launch on Peacock yet; Neill Blomkamp’s #1 US box office hit Gran Turismo; and box sets of classic NBC comedies like The Office and Parks and Recreation. It’s also been confirmed that box sets of HBO’s House of the Dragon and the second season of the phenomenal HBO hit The Last of Us will be heading to Showmax in the future.
New international content like Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and Halo will be available in HD with Dolby 5.1 surround sound: one of the benefits of Showmax’s migration onto the global Peacock streaming platform. The robust platform is used across the globe and is a leader in sports streaming, having successfully live streamed the Super Bowl to more than six million users simultaneously, so positions Showmax as ready to scale, and scale fast.
“2024 is a big year for Showmax,” says CEO Marc Jury. “We will be kicking it off with a content slate packed with world-class entertainment from the world’s biggest brands plus more African Originals than ever before and the first ever mobile Premier League plan for Africa.”
Over and above the heavy-hitting entertainment lineup, the new Showmax is launching the continent’s first standalone Premier League plan. Showmax Premier League will live stream all 380 matches, all the goals and all the unmissable drama of the world’s most popular football league – and all on mobile. Showmax Premier League will give individual mobile users in 40+ markets in Africa exclusive live access to every Premier League match, as well as in-depth analyses, highlights and an extensive library of Premier League content on their mobile devices. Powered by SuperSport, Showmax Premier League can be bundled with the Showmax Entertainment plans.
The new Showmax will have three plans: Showmax Entertainment, Showmax Entertainment Mobile and Showmax Premier League Mobile. Details on pricing and launch dates will be revealed soon.
