One Year Later, Showmax 2.0 Is Winning the Streaming Game
Showmax celebrates a landmark year with record growth, global hits, award-winning local originals, live sports, and groundbreaking streaming innovations.
12 February 2025, marks one year since Showmax relaunched in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky. This saw Showmax undergo a complete rebrand, upgrade onto Comcast’s Peacock app, and relaunch with a better content slate than ever before.
It was a landmark year for Showmax, which grew its paying subscriber base (excluding discontinued services) by 50% year on year, according to the most recent MultiChoice results released in September 2024*. The African streamer was named Best Television/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa and Entertainment App of the Year at the Stuff App Awards. “Improved stability, increased searchability, and more content in general make the Showmax experience even better than it was before,” says Stuff.
The best international hits
Entertainment is global in 2025, with customers wanting the very best from across the globe. Showmax curates the biggest hits from the world’s best studios, including NBCUniversal, HBO, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, Illumination, and DreamWorks.
In fact, Showmax topped JustWatch’s Streaming Charts for 2024 for South Africa, with the top two movies (2024 Best Picture Oscar winner Oppenheimer and Civil War) and the top two series (The Rookie and Yellowstone), as well as more titles in both top 10s than any other streamer.
By the end of March 2025, Showmax will be streaming half of last year’s 10 biggest blockbusters globally: Despicable Me 4, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, Venom: The Last Dance, and Dune: Part Two, Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Movie of 2024, which is up for five Oscars.
Showmax also brought viewers major international hits like:
- Hacks S3 – Best Comedy at the Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics Choice and Rotten Tomatoes’ Golden Tomato Awards
- The Penguin – Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Limited Series of 2024, which won Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti 2025 Critics Choice Best Actor and Actress awards, as well as a Golden Globe for Farrell
- Wise Guys: David Chase & The Sopranos – Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Docuseries of 2024
- Showmax also carries five of IMDb’s six highest-rated live-action series of all time: Band of Brothers, Chernobyl, The Wire, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones, as well as IMDb’s highest-rated live action comedy of all time, The Office.
Doubling down on local content
As some streamers scaled back on local production, Showmax took the opposite approach, delivering a record 97 Showmax Originals. The investment paid off, with Showmax being home to the most winners at the National Film and TV Awards SA, The Behind the Scenes Awards, and the SAFTAs, as well as Koek, the most-awarded series at Silwerskerm.
Youngins had the most first-day views of any title since relaunch, with The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip – South Africa and Adulting setting the 7- and 10-day records respectively.
Despite strong international competition, 9 out of 10 of Showmax’s most-streamed titles since relaunch have been local. The only exception? HBO’s epic House of the Dragon.
African stories win globally
Showmax’s local content had a banner year internationally:
- Spinners won Best Foreign Series at the Shanghai TV Festival’s Magnolia Awards, beating Succession’s final season
- Die Brug earned MultiChoice its third International Emmy nomination in three years
- Catch Me A Killer became the first South African series at Series Mania and won Best Production Design at the British Film Designers Guild Awards
- Wyfie competed at the Seoul International Drama Awards and the Rose d’Or Awards
- Original Sin: My Son The Killer was a finalist at the Venice TV Awards
- Death in the Heartlands was shortlisted at the Broadcast Sports Awards
International exposure continue to grow as a result, with White Lies charting at #3 on Stan. in Australia and Spinners at #6 on CANAL+ in France.
Innovation in sports, live streaming and localisation
Showmax relaunched with the world’s first standalone Premier League plan for mobile – and then added the Betway Premiership to the service in August 2024. It also hosted special events such as the Olympics and the UEFA Champions League final, to name a few.
2025 has kicked off with even more innovation from Showmax, with its first foray into live-streamed entertainment: Grammy winner Tyla’s sold-out final homecoming concert. This made Showmax the first streaming service to live stream a homegrown concert.
Showmax also recently became the first streaming service to offer a Kiswahili user interface, making it more accessible to over 15 million Swahili speakers in Tanzania and millions more across sub-Saharan Africa. Showmax also has a Portuguese user interface option.
Marketing and industry recognition
While Showmax’s content got most of the praise, behind the scenes, Showmax’s marketing and PR team were picking up their own accolades too: winning two Loeries and the Gold PRISM Award for Best Corporate: Business to Consumer PR, as well as two New Generation Awards and the Silver for the Creative Team of the Year at Promax Africa, where Showmax was the most awarded streamer, taking home seven Golds.
What’s next?
Africa is a dynamic, challenging environment that remains an unrivalled growth opportunity, with the fastest-growing population globally and rising connectivity. Showmax is well-positioned to take advantage of these trends through its diverse mix of best-in-class local content, affordable mobile football products, and the best international content from leading international studios including NBCUniversal, HBO, Sky, Paramount and more.– Byron du Plessis, CEO, MultiChoice South Africa
