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Showmax users have climbed by 50% since lockdown started

South Africans have become more closely acquainted with Showmax since the nation-wide lockdown began in March.

The streaming service reports that its number of active users has increased by 50 percent and “play events” have doubled since lockdown began.

A play event is when a user clicks on a movie or series.

Showmax notes that its indicators measured what it considered normal viewing patterns across February and the first half of March. Usually these viewing patterns peak on Sunday with lulls during the week – particularly on Wednesday and Thursday. Viewership then grows until it peaks again on Sunday.

But on 15th March Showmax noted an oddity – viewing numbers didn’t drop from Sunday’s peak as they usually would.

“We’re in the fortunate position of being able to do something to help people through this period. We’ve added live news and education channels to Showmax using the streaming functionality originally set up for sport. We’ve also created edutainment content rows to help parents, and we’re even adding yoga and other exercise programming,” chief executive officer at MultiChoice’s Connected Video division, Niclas Ekdahl said in a statement.

From 15th March Showmax saw it’s viewer numbers climbing for six days in a row.

Similarly, play events have now doubled since mid-February.

Much like Netflix is doing, Showmax is monitoring its impact on networks so as not to cause unnecessary traffic. To that end it is closely monitoring its traffic load on mobile networks.

Showmax says it will continue to monitor the situation.

For those who aren’t subscribed to Showmax and would like to check it out here’s a pro-tip for you.

Showmax features a 14-day free trial and with lockdown set to end next week, you could enjoy a breadth of content from around the world and right here in SA for free. Just remember to cancel before the 14-day trial is up if you aren’t looking to continue the service.

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