Showmax
Type of site | OTT platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | August 19, 2015 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Area served | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Parent | MultiChoice (Canal+ S.A.) (70%) NBCUniversal (30%) |
| URL | showmax |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 3.1 million (2024) |
| Current status | Active (planned closure) |
Showmax is a South African subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service that launched in 2015.
Its majority owner (with a shareholding of 70%) is South African satellite TV company MultiChoice. American conglomerate NBCUniversal owns 30% in all territories except Nigeria, where NBCUniversal holds an indirect 23.7% stake in the local subsidiary.
In 2023, Showmax announced a partnership with NBCUniversal and Sky. The new Showmax launched in February 2024, with a brand-new app and streaming platform, as well as an unprecedented content slate.
Showmax uses a localisation strategy to take on established video on demand competitors with a focus on local content and partnerships with mobile telcos. It has a customer base of 2.1 million subscribers Africa-wide first place in the continent's market overtaking Netflix's 1.8 million by November 2023.
The Showmax catalogue consists of series, movies and documentaries from Hollywood, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and the UK, among others, and content in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Kiswahili, Sepedi, SeTswana, Sesotho and isiXhosa, and other African languages.
Showmax's engineering team was originally based in the Czech Republic, but has since merged with Sky UK's Global Streaming team.
In March 2026, it was announced that Showmax would be shut down, and replaced with the Canal+ streaming service.