by Thinus Ferreira
South African viewers can now register their interest for Paramount+ which says it is "coming soon" to South Africa and that will very likely be the next global video streaming service becoming available in the country sometime next year, although a specific launch date has not yet been announced.
Following the launch of Disney+ in South Africa in May this year, the South African public broadcaster took over Telkom's TelkomONE streamer and rebranded it this week as SABC+ and which were 2022's two over-the-top (OTT) streaming service launches. NBCUniversal added Universal+ as a catch-up service to MultiChoice's DStv Catch Up offering.
Paramount Global's Paramount+ is very likely up next, with Paramount Africa taking a page from Disney's playbook and the Mouse House's launch of Disney+. Disney+ also invited potential South African customers to register their interest before the streamer eventually went live a few months later.
Paramount+ bundles a massive library and new content ranging from Paramount Pictures films, Paramount+ Originals, Nickelodeon, MTV and CBS Studios.
The South African launch of Paramount+, when it happens, will be as a stand-alone app and through connected TV sets, but will very likely also be in partnership with the MultiChoice Group which has existing deals to carry Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ as apps on its DStv Explora Ultra decoder.
Paramount is rolling out Paramount+ globally in what it calls "a hard bundle", meaning that it's tied to the services of traditional pay-TV operators who already carry collections of Paramount's linear pay-TV channels.
South African video consumers already have access to Netflix SA, MultiChoice's video streamer Showmax, eMedia's video streamer eVOD, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, BritBox SA, Acorn TV, VIU, TruthTV, WOW Presents Plus and MarqueeTV.
NBCUniversal is still mum on the possibility of launching its streaming service Peacock in South Africa, and Warner Bros. Discovery - which still has to reveal a new name for its combined HBO Max and discovery+ streamer - has also not announced any date for when it intends to launch its video streamer in the country.
At www.paramountplus.com South Africans can now register their interest by filling in their email. Paramount will likely then let interested people know, when Paramount+ intends to launch.
People who had registered their interest for Disney+ got a notification email but also a discount sign-up offer which was only available to them and which made a Disney+ subscription much cheaper.
Natalie Mdladla, senior communications director at Paramount Africa, confirmed to TVwithThinus this week in response to a media query about Paramount+ that its website is live in South Africa and allows users to share their email addresses with the company for updates on Paramount+ news.
"We are planning to launch Paramount+ in South
Africa, but don't have a definitive date as yet," she said.
