As expected, ShowMax launched in Poland last week with a monthly subscription of 5euro (R70.90) and a 14-day free trial.
ShowMax's development hub is based in the neighbouring Czech Republic, that made the jump to Poland the perfect choice as the springboard for ShowMax's European expansion aspirations.
According to reports, ShowMax signed up 172 000 subscribers sampling the service.
When Netflix launched in Poland in January 2016 it drew 337 600 subscribers with the service that offers a month-long free trial. By February 2017 Netflix had 80 000 subscribers, with 385 900 people who've used the service during 2016
Interestingly, Naspers' pay-to-play streamer with its launch last week managed to lure more than half of the number of Polish subscribers that Netflix did that has a much larger global brand awareness.
ShowMax, launched in August 2015 in South Africa, doesn't yet release subscriber numbers for South Africa or Africa but in mid-July 2016 said that the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service has racked up more than 10 million "views".
ShowMax said "the cumulative number of TV shows and movies watched by ShowMax customers exceeded 10 million. In total, more than five million hours of content have been viewed, the equivalent of more than 500 years if played back-to-back".
