by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax on Wednesday once again made a dubious viewership claim, without releasing any viewership statistics to back up that claim, with the streamer that claimed that The Real Housewives of Durban has become its most-watched first-day viewed show.
Showmax announced that The Real Housewives of Durban apparently "has broken all previous first-day viewing records, claiming top spot on the
streaming service" and that the show has remained the most-popular show on Showmax over the last week.
Showmax provided no numbers, ratings, or viewership stats to support or back up its nebulous claim.
Showmax was asked what the actual first-day viewership of The Real Housewives of Durban was since the press release contains no viewing numbers of the show or the previous first-day viewership record but Showmax told TVwithThinus that "Showmax doesn't release subscriber figures".
On 15 January last month, Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, told South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in the regulator's inquiry into pay-TV in South Africa, that MultiChoice is deliberately not reporting Showmax user numbers or viewership figures for its video streaming service because the subscriber base is too small.
In a supplied quote on Wednesday, Candice Fangueiro, Showmax head of content, says "We know our reality fans come
for the drama and if you’re looking for fireworks, the first episode of The Real Housewives of Durban has it all, so we’re not surprised to see it break records.”
M-Net in January announced that The Real Housewives of Durban would start on its 1Magic (DStv 103) TV channel on 19 January, before inexplicably announcing a week later that it is now moving the series to Showmax.
The confusing public announcements - of first saying a show would be on a DStv channel, and then suddenly on Showmax that angered and confused DStv subscribers - once again underscored and revealed how MultiChoice is grappling internally and itself doesn't know what the specific programming strategy and alignment between Showmax and its various M-Net channels are or should be.
The first season of 14 episodes of The Real Housewives of Durban is produced by Let It Rain Films including a reunion and features the Durban socialites and business women Annie
Ludick, Ayanda Ncwane, Kgomotso Ndungane, Nonkanyiso Conco, Nonku Williams and
Sorisha Naidoo.
