By Abdi Ali
Published March 3, 2023
Subscribers of MultiChoice’s Showmax streaming service across sub-Saharan Africa are set to receive extensive premium content portfolio, bringing African audiences the best of local and international programming following partnership between MultiChoice and Comcast.
Showmax will combine MultiChoice’s accelerating investment in local content with international content licensed from Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky, third party content from HBO, Warner Brothers International, Sony and others, as well as live English Premier League (EPL) football. The partnership will also provide access to all African content such as Showmax Originals and local content from MultiChoice’s proprietary channels including Mzansi Magic, Africa Magic and Maisha Magic.
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Using a significant portfolio of global media assets and Peacock’s streaming platform, which finished 2022 with more than 20 million paid subscribers in USA, NBCUniversal and Sky will provide ongoing support through the licensing of both technology and content.
“We launched Showmax as the first African streaming service in 2015 and are extremely proud of its success to date. This agreement represents a great opportunity for our Showmax team to scale even greater heights by working with a leading global player in Comcast and its subsidiaries,” says Calvo Mawela, Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice. “The new business venture deepens an already strong relationship and builds on the Sky Glass technology partnership that we announced in September 2022. We believe we are extremely well positioned to create a winning platform going forward.”
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Dana Strong, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sky says, “This new collaboration in streaming and content with MultiChoice, NBCUniversal, and Sky takes our partnership to the next level in one of the world’s most vibrant, fastest growing markets. Last year, we announced MultiChoice as a customer of the Sky Glass platform and now we are excited to help innovate its Showmax streaming service.”
Matt Strauss, NBCUniversal’s Chairman and Direct-to-Consumer & International, says, “This partnership is an incredible opportunity to further scale the global presence of Peacock’s world-class streaming technology, as well as to introduce millions of new customers to extensive premium content from NBCUniversal and Sky’s stellar entertainment brands.”
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