Showmax
 | |
Website type | OTT platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 19 August 2015 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Area served | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Parent | MultiChoice (Canal+ S.A.) (70%) NBCUniversal (30%) |
| Website | showmax |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 3.1 million (2024) |
| Launched | 19 August 2015 (original) 12 February 2024 (relaunch) |
| Current status | Defunct (since 2026) |
type. Replace with website_type.location_city. Replace with headquarters_city.launch_date. Replace with launched.location_country. Replace with headquarters_country.foundation. Replace with founded.Showmax was a South African subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service that launched in 2015.
Its majority owner (with a shareholding of 70%) was South African satellite TV company MultiChoice. American conglomerate NBCUniversal owned 30% in all territories except Nigeria, where NBCUniversal held 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 on 30 April and will be replaced by DStv Stream and in the near future, the Canal+ streaming service.