by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice will relaunch its Showmax video streaming service in Africa, including a possible name change, after partnering up with Comcast's NBCUniversal running the Peacock streamer and Sky in the United Kingdom.
Facing increasing competition after the influx of global streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and others in South Africa and across the African territory, MultiChoice now plans to relaunch its Showmax service powered by NBCUniversal's Peacock technology, as a new service, with the content and pricing which is yet to be announced.
MultiChoice is selling a 30% stake in Showmax to NBCUniversal, keeping 70% through Earth UK Holdings Limited (EarthCo), a new UK-registered company which will now be trading as "Showmax".
EarthCo's senior leadership team will be based in its Dubai branch where MultiChoice has an office, and the UK, with so-called operational teams in South Africa and Nigeria. In Nigeria, NBCUniversal will hold an indirect 23.7% stake in the local Showmax subsidiary.
MultiChoice will now funnel content from NBCUniversal and Sky into Showmax. MultiChoice recently added the Universal+ service to DStv, raising questions over whether Universal+ will continue as a stand-alone content hub after the new Showmax deal.
MultiChoice says it will now use NBCUniversal's Peacock technology for Showmax to bring African pay-TV audiences "the best of local and international programming".
Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice CEO, in a prepared statement, says "We launched Showmax as the first African streaming service in 2015 and are extremely proud of its success to date".
"This agreement represents a great opportunity for our Showmax team to scale even greater heights by working with a leading global player in Comcast and its subsidiaries".
"The new business venture deepens an already strong relationship and builds on the Sky Glass technology partnership that we announced in September last year. We believe we are extremely well positioned to create a winning platform going forward."
Dana Strong, Sky CEO, in the statement says "This new collaboration in streaming and content with MultiChoice, NBCUniversal, and Sky takes our partnership to the next level in one of the world's most vibrant, fastest growing markets".
"Last year, we announced MultiChoice as a customer of the Sky Glass platform and now we are excited to help innovate its Showmax streaming service."
Matt Strauss, NBCUniversal chairman of direct-to-consumer & international, in the statement says "This partnership is an incredible opportunity to further scale the global presence of Peacock's world-class streaming technology, as well as to introduce millions of new customers to extensive premium content from NBCUniversal and Sky’s stellar entertainment brands".