by Thinus Ferreira
Yet another new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service has launched in South Africa, with CineMagic that is offering a range of short-form video movies, series and documentaries, for smaller screens.
CineMagic that will be available in South Africa through the mobile streaming content platforms of Vodacom's Vodacom Video Play and MTN Play will now compete against the likes of existing video streaming services such as Netflix, MultiChoice's Showmax, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, VIU and some other SVOD players.
CineMagic comes from Exceptional Rights, and offers director-driven, high-value curated video content ranging from 5 to 30 minutes in duration.
Users can sign up through their mobile devices with a subscription for the video streaming service that costs R5 a day with the first 3 days free. Subscriptions can be stopped at any time.
"There is an unmet consumer demand for short movies that display beautifully on mobile," says Joanne Raphael Katz of Exceptional Rights. "The support from the mobile networks recognises the confidence they have in CineMagic’s snackable little movies and the fact that South African mobile users want video designed for their cellular devices and not for traditional TV broadcast".
She says that "there are very few movie studios globally dedicated to the production of short movies and series. This means we proactively procure content from individual companies, film makers, producers and artists and pre-Covid-19, we also actively visited African and European film festivals to source short movies".
Categories on CineMagic include Africa’s Best, Drama, Comedy, Action, Romance, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Horror, Animation and Thriller. Both movies and series titles are available to be streamed from www.cinemagic.co.za to users' devices through using mobile or Wi-Fi.
CineMagic is also looking for new content and says local creative talent can submit their content for consideration to contact@cinemagic.co.za.
CineMagic plans to roll out beyond South Africa to other sub-Saharan countries and also sourced a range of French short-form content secured for the Francophone African territories.
