Showmax drops mobile-only plan pricing to R39 per month, says it realises that 'consumers are under pressure at the moment'.

by Thinus Ferreira

Showmax has dropped the monthly subscription fee of Showmax Mobile plan by 20% from R49 to R39 per month in South Africa, with the mobile-only plan's price that is also decreased across Africa and with MultiChoice's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service saying that it is doing so because it realises that "consumers are under pressure at the moment".

While Showmax is reducing the cost for its mobile-only plan all other prices remain unchanged. The standard Showmax plan remains R99 per month, while Showmax Pro costs R445 and Showmax Pro mobile remains pegged at R225 per month.  

Showmax Pro bundles the existing Showmax entertainment offering with music channels, news and live sports streaming from SuperSport, and also includes a selection of live news channels, such as SABC News (in South Africa only), euronews, Africanews and Newzroom Afrika. 

Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice CEO for connected video, says "We know that consumers are under pressure at the moment and we believe this change will be appreciated by our mobile customers as will the decision not to increase any of our other prices".

"We have our most exciting slate of Showmax Originals this year and look forward to more South Africans enjoying our proudly African stories." 

Showmax Originals on the way in 2021 include the upcoming Cape Flats neo-noir murder mystery series Skemerdans; Babes Wodumo and Mampintsha’s reality series Uthando Lodumo; a second co-production with CANAL+ entitled Blood Psalms that is an epic series based on ancient African mythology; and Showmax's first international reality TV series format, Temptation Island.  

 

So far this year Showmax has released four Showmax Originals: the follow-up to Tali’s Wedding Diary entitled Tali’s Baby Diary; the small-town psychological thriller DAM; the Kenyan police procedural Crime and Justice that is also a co-production with CANAL+; and the reality series I Am Laycon as Nigeria’s first Showmax Original.

Showmax says that it will continue to bring the best of HBO, international series, movies and kids’ shows to Africa first. 

Feature	Mobile Only	Standard
Video quality	Standard Definition (SD)	High Definition (HD)
Which devices?	Smartphones & tablets	Smartphones, tablets, computers, smart TVs, media players, and gaming consoles
Number of streams	1 stream	2 devices can stream at the same time
Number of devices	Mobile-only is limited to one registered device.	Up to 5 devices can be registered, with 2 able to stream at the same time
Catalogue	Full access to everything on Showmax/Showmax Pro.	Full access to everything on Showmax/Showmax Pro.
Casting	No	Yes

  

	Showmax	Showmax Mobile WAS	Showmax Mobile NOW	Showmax Pro	Showmax Pro Mobile
South Africa	R99	R49	R39	R449	R225
Kenya	KSh 790	KSh 380	KSh 300	KSh 2100	KSh 1050
Nigeria	NGN 2900	NGN 1450	NGN 1200	NGN 6300	NGN 3200
Ghana	GHC  45.99	GHC 22.99	GHC 16.99	GHC 119.99	GHC 59.99
Uganda	UGX 30 300	UGX  15 200	UGX 11 499	UGX 67 200	UGX 33 600
Rest of Africa	USD 7.99	USD  3.99	USD 2.99	USD 17.99	USD 8.99