African Streamer Showmax’s Annual Loss Widens Amid Investment for Peacock-Powered Relaunch
African streaming service Showmax, in which Comcast/NBCUniversal owns a 30 percent stake, posted higher revenue but also increased losses for its latest fiscal year ended in March amid investments related to its recent relaunch, African pay-TV giant MultiChoice Group disclosed on Wednesday.
Showmax’s revenue for the year grew by 22 percent to 1.0 billion South African rand ($54 million). The loss related to the streamer more than doubled from around 1.2 billion rand ($65.0 million) to 2.6 billion rand ($140.5 million) as the company cited an “additional 1.4 billion rand ($75.7 million) investment in Showmax to drive future growth.” But it had previously predicted a bigger loss in the range of 3.0 billion-4.0 billion rand ($162 million-$216 million).
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“Fiscal year 2024 was a pivotal year for Showmax as it relaunched across 44 markets in sub-Saharan Africa on Peacock’s world-class platform, which is 4K/HDR and ATMOS ready,” the company said. “Almost 100 percent of the eligible customer base was migrated to the new Showmax platform, and 88 percent of those migrated had reactivated their accounts in the seven weeks to year-end.”
It added: “Showmax, which re-launched in February, is showing encouraging early traction – it delivered record single-month growth in March 2024, with the paying subscriber base growing 16 percent from the migrated base at relaunch to year-end.”
MultiChoice, which owns a 70 percent stake in Showmax, didn’t break out the streamer’s subscriber figures. But it disclosed a 9 percent drop in total company subscribers across platforms from 17.3 million to less than 15.7 million. The drop was “mainly due to a 13 percent decline in the Rest of Africa business as mass-market customers in countries like Nigeria had to prioritize basic necessities over entertainment, while the South African business showed more resilience with a 5 percent decline,” MultiChoice explained.
Earlier this year, the streamer relaunched, powered by the MultiChoice joint venture with Comcast and NBCUniversal‘s Peacock streaming platform, new pricing, mobile-only offers, as well as an expanded content lineup, including popular sports and more originals to offer up the best of African and international programming.
The Showmax service, which launched in South Africa before over time expanding to 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, previously summarized its goals this way: “to change the game for streaming in Africa” and to be the “number one streamer in Africa.”
Showmax is led by CEO Marc Jury whose team is focused on four core strategies. “The four pillars are creating the best and most loved stories, making sure it’s accessible, making sure it’s effortless to access and affordable,” he told THR earlier this year. “Those are the four key elements that we’re going to hang our hat on and we’re going to keep reiterating to the market for why we will be the number one streaming platform in Africa.”
Showmax originals have included the likes of high-school drama Youngins, university drama Wyfie, crime drama Koek, comedy Ekhaya Backpackers, Nigerian documentary series Free Men, reality series The Real Housewives of Nairobi, and crime drama Pepeta. Showmax drama series Spinners was the first African series selected for Canneseries, while true-crime drama Catch Me a Killer became the first South African series at Series Mania.
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